


A Shadow Hanging Over Our Fate

by CaptainDean13



Series: Help! I need somebody... Fics [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Anal Sex, Bucky Barnes Feels, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hydra (Marvel), M/M, Steve Rogers Feels, Time Travel, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2018-09-27 19:50:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10043447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainDean13/pseuds/CaptainDean13
Summary: The Avengers get sent back in time to WWII where they run into the Howling Commandos... complete with Bucky and Steve. Little hard to explain that away, especially when you are trying to keep some major secrets. Secrets like how you ended up in the future and why the hell Bucky is now a scary (reformed) assassin with a metal arm, not to mention that you married your friend's son.





	1. Deep Inside We're The Same

**Author's Note:**

> Both main title and chapter titles from Zayde Wolf's [ Rise Up ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXebqmlXmac)
> 
> The first of the fics from my [ cry for help ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9863594/chapters/22132280) post :)
> 
> Note on translations: I used Google translate for all the languages in this. If you know the language and see a mistake please let me know so I can correct it. 
> 
> **Trigger Warning**  
>  Steve freaks out at one point and edges toward a panic attack.

Steve starts issuing orders as the quinjet lands. They were going into the fight mostly blind, having heard the alert and left the tower in a rush. All he knew was that some idiot in a cape was apparently standing in the middle of Central Park, threatening to unleash his ‘hordes of destruction’. No one was even sure what said hordes consisted of, but they were hoping they could contain the guy before he got around to unleashing them.

 

Tony and Sam had done a fly over while they waited for the rest of the team to arrive, and they now landed next to Steve to fill him in as he studied a map of the area. 

 

“Okay, Hawkeye and Thor – take the south approach. Hawkeye get as close as you can without being seen and get eyes on. Thor, stay out of sight, we don’t want to spook the guy early. Widow and Falcon, you guys go east. Widow, take this path here and get close. Falcon, stay back and cover this area in case he tries to….” Steve trails off as a high-pitched buzzing fills his ears. It’s painful in its intensity and he clamps his hands over his ears and hunches over. 

 

It only dampens the noise slightly, and he feels a tug on his wrist that makes him open his eyes- huh, he can’t remember closing them – and look into Tony’s. Steve can see his husband’s lips moving but can’t hear anything over the God-awful noise. Why isn’t anyone else reacting? Can’t they hear it? Tony turns to say something to someone, probably Bruce, and Steve can see the others hovering behind Tony, watching Steve with concern. 

 

Hands come from behind him, one cool metal and one covered in leather, to cover his own, helping to block the noise. It’s enough of a barrier that Steve no longer feels like his brain is going to start leaking out his ears and he sighs slightly in relief and slumps back against his best friend. He wants to ask how James knew, but he wouldn’t be able to hear the answer anyway. 

 

Clint steps into his line of vision and gestures to get his attention. Once Steve is focusing on him, Clint swiftly signs a question – _You ok?_ Steve nods. Clint continues, _We think the noise is just too high for us to hear, but you’ve got that crazy super soldier senses thing going on. James can just barely hear it, and Bruce says that the Hulk is freaking out slightly. He has him under control at the moment, something about the noise being a distraction, who knows? Anyway, Stark wants to know if you think the noise is mechanical or something else. Like, does it sound like a machine we can hunt down and turn off? James can’t hear it well enough to tell._

 

Steve analyzes the noise through the two layers of hands and then says softly, “I think it is. It sounds almost like a generator of some kind.” 

 

_Got it. Don’t worry, Cap, we’ll find it. Even if we have to use James like a tracking dog._ Clint grins at the growl Steve can feel rumbling through James’s chest. Then he turns and starts back towards the rest of the team. There is a brief discussion and they look like they are about to split up to go find the machine when Steve senses a change in the noise. 

 

“Wait- something is different.” He calls, and the others return to him. “The noise changed – almost like it went from idling to in gear? Like a car? If it is a machine, I think we are about to find out what it does.” 

 

This news does not go over well, but before the team can take off the sound thickens, tightens, swirls into greater and greater thrums that cause Steve to cry out in pain and then…..

 

Silence.

 

The sharp shift causes Steve to sway slightly, but he cautiously pulls his and James’s hands off his ears. The noise is gone, but in its place is a sound Steve was positive he would never hear again.

 

“What the hell?”

 

“Dum Dum?” Steve asks incredulously as his head snaps to the side where he heard the voice. 

 

Standing in a ring around a small campfire off to his right are the Howling Commandos, including younger versions of him and Bucky. They look like they all just jumped to their feet, and are debating whether to shoot at the people who suddenly appeared at the edge of their camp. It is Steve’s question that has them hesitating. 

 

Steve reaches up and pulls his cowl down so they can see his face unhampered. “Look, I don’t have any idea what is going on but can we agree not to shoot one another for the time being?” The question is directed both at the Commandos and at James, who he can see out of the corner of his eye has a gun in his flesh hand. The Commandos look back at their Steve for his orders and he slowly nods. “Let’s see if we can figure this out. If that really is me somehow I would rather not kill me.” 

 

The Commandos relax slightly at his words and lower their weapons. James waits until they do and then slips his gun back into his holster. Before anything else happens, Steve wants to see who all is with him.  


 

With a raised eyebrow, he turns his back to the Commandos, ignoring James’s displeased growl, and looks to see if any of the other Avengers ended up coming with. Turns out all of them did, and they are standing behind him with their weapons held loosely. That would probably explain the Commandos’ reaction, not that seeing a clone of your commander appearing from thin air wouldn’t be enough.

 

The members of his team are having quite the variety of reactions, he notes with amusement. Clint is grinning widely while looking back and forth between Steve, James and the Commandos. Sam is uneasy but obviously intrigued. Thor is standing calmly to the side, apparent time travel not enough to ruffle the god’s good cheer. Natasha has her poker face on so there was no way to tell what she was thinking. Tony is unreadable as well, since his mask is down, but Steve has a suspicion that he is in shock, seeing the men who were his childhood heroes again. He had known the Commandos growing up, of course, between Peggy and Howard, but seeing them all alive – not to mention young – was probably screwing with his head. Bruce was the most immediate concern. He was a pale shade of green. 

 

“Bruce?” Steve asks. 

 

Bruce grimaces, “Just need a minute.”

 

Steve accepts that and turns to James. If anyone was likely to freak out about the situation it was either him or James. Steve is trying very hard not to think about what is happening in order to stave off the panic attack he can feel building. If James reverts back to the Winter Soldier, he is not sure he will be able to keep himself together long enough to help. Luckily, James seems to be handling the whole thing better than Steve. He is in his usual battleground position just off to Steve’s left and back a bit, though he is hovering closer like he does when he is nervous. Shooting his best friend what he hopes is a reassuring smile, Steve takes a breath and turns back to the Commandos. 

 

They rearranged while he was checking the Avengers. Their Steve is now in front, their Bucky in the same place as his, he notes with a snort. Some things never change. The others are arranged out behind them, mirroring the Avengers from across the fire. Their Steve is eyeing Steve warily. “Alright, so who - or what- are you?”

 

Steve raises a brow. “I’m you. And no I am not some freaky Hydra clone or anything like that. I’m you but…older.” There is really no way to explain the situation without sounding like he has lost his mind. Hell, he is not even convinced of that. 

 

“Older? Are you telling me you are from the future?” His counterpart sounds skeptical. 

 

Steve has to fight down a hysterical laugh at the absurdity of it all. For the last several years he has been known as the man from the past that was pushed into an unfamiliar future. Now he is the man from the future pushed back into the familiar past, but he dragged all his modern counterparts along with him. 

 

Steve manages to get himself under control and looks at his past self. Thinking furiously, he feels an idea take form. “Yes. I am you but a few years older. And I have a thought about how to prove it to you. Bucky,” he says, pointing at the younger Bucky across the fire. Steve knows that the key to this is to get Bucky on his side. He has always trusted Bucky more than he trusted himself. If he can get Bucky to accept it, he knows his younger version will too. 

 

“January 1938.” Steve says quietly and he watches as both the young version of himself and Bucky stiffen. He can feel James shift closer. Steve makes a quick decision and continues in Gaelic. Neither he nor Bucky was ever fluent, but Steve had picked up some from his ma and whatever Steve learned, Bucky learned. “Beidh mé ag troid i gcónaí le haghaidh tú.”

 

Bucky blinks several times and clears his throat before saying, “It’s Steve. I don’t understand how or what or any of that, but that is Steve Rogers.”

 

The tension in Steve’s shoulders eases and a real smile grows on his face. “I don’t understand the how or what either to be honest. We were on a mission and then there was this horrendous noise and then we ended up here.” He shrugs.

 

Steve surveys the Commandos and then the Avengers and the surroundings. He comes to a quick decision. “I’m assuming we are behind enemy lines because Lord knows we spent enough time there. I have no idea how we got here or how long we are going to be here so I am gonna go ahead and do some introductions. I will give a quick run down of skills too since we may have to fight at some point and that will go a hell of a lot smoother if everyone knows what the others can do. Actually, on that note…” He turns to his younger self who is already shaking his head. 

 

“You are me.” He says. “That means you already know everything in my head, including all these guys’ skill sets.” He sweeps an arm out to encompass the Commandos. “And you know all of theirs.” This comes with a nod toward the Avengers. “Plus you have more experience than me. I’ll follow your lead.”

 

Steve nods. He isn’t all that surprised. It is what he would have done, after all. Then he tries to figure out where to start. 

 

“Alright, this is going to get weird. There are some things I have to explain and others that I can’t explain so you will have to accept that there is a reason for what I hold back, understood?”

 

He looks at the Commandos who all nod or grunt in affirmation. 

 

“First thing you need to know. From my perspective, it has been give or take five years since I was here. But we all,” he gestures toward the Avengers and hesitates for a moment before continuing. “Before we showed up here we were in the year 2017.” His younger self blinks rapidly and Bucky sputters before saying, “So you’ve done this time travel thing before? Goddammit Stevie you are gonna be the death of me.”

 

The Avengers all tense, and Steve forces words past the lump in his throat before the Commandos notice. He manages to only sound a little chocked when he says “In a manner of speaking I have. Best just leave it at that.”

 

Clearing his throat, he straightens his back and then finds an honest grin for the men he once commanded. “This is going to go straight to your heads, but I don’t have to introduce you. The Howling Commandos are famous – museum exhibits and everything. These guys already know who you are and what you do. Of course almost everything in the books and exhibits is a lie,” he smirks at them, “but the basic facts are true enough.”

 

The Commandos take that news just how he had expected, grinning and jeering at him. “As for my team…” 

 

Steve tries to figure out the best way to do this. It is going to be a shit show no matter what but maybe he can keep the trouble till the end. 

 

“We all have our names, just like I’m Captain America, and we use those on mission so I’ll provide them as well.”

 

Bucky arches one eyebrow. “You leading a gang of superheros now? And you didn’t invite us? Even me? Now Stevie that’s just damn rude.” Steve can hear the hurt lurking under the joking tone and winces.  


 

The tension is thicker this time, thick enough that his younger counterpart catches his eye with a question clear on his face. Not now is his unspoken reply. His younger self dips his chin slightly in acknowledgment and snakes out an arm to cuff Bucky on the back of his head. “Let him-me talk, Jerk.”

 

Bucky scowls at him and replies, “That is gonna get fucking confusing real quick.” 

 

Steve is the one who replies. “We should probably figure out some way of differentiating.”

 

His counterpart shrugs, “I can go by Rogers.”

 

Steve nods. “And this lot usually just calls me Cap so I can go by that. So - these are the Avengers. This is Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye. Best damn sniper I have ever seen.” Clint grins and waves his bow at Bucky who looks vaguely affronted. 

 

Dum Dum snorts before Bucky can say anything though. “Better than Sarge? I don’t believe it. Can’t believe you’d even say shit like that Cap. I mean, seriously, is your sniper carrying a fucking bow and arrow?” 

 

Clint moves so quickly that Steve would have missed it if he hadn’t been expecting it. In one fluid motion the archer whips an arrow from his quiver, draws, releases and is back in his original stance, grin in place, before the arrow has even pinned Dum Dum’s hat to the tree behind him. Morita releases a long whistle through his teeth. Steve’s lips twitch and he continues as if nothing happened. 

 

“Next to him is Natasha Romanov, also called Black Widow. She can kill you in more ways than you can come up with together, and you’d be dead before you realized she was there.” Natasha’s small smile is one of her most terrifying and not one of the Commandos is stupid enough to make a comment. 

 

“Over there is Sam Wilson, also known as Falcon. He was Air Force Pararescue – the military version of CAP.” This gets looks of respect from the Commandos. “As for his what he can do? Sam, want to show them? Keep in mind we are in enemy territory.” Sam grins and extends his wings. He takes off and circles the clearing once, keeping below the tree line, before landing back in his original spot. Gabe is the first Commando to find his voice. “That is fucking amazing.” Sam grins as murmurers of assent come from the others. 

 

“I know.” He replies easily. “And Cap, Natasha and I only had to break into one secure military compound to get them.” Steve feels a blush creep up his cheeks as the Commandos laugh and Bucky scowls at him. 

 

Steve waits for them to quiet down, then continues. “The guy over by the tree is Dr. Bruce Banner. Let’s just say he has an anger management issue and you all will not provoke him.” The last is said in a tone of command that has the Commandos straightening and nodding. “We try to keep him out of the fights as often as possible, but he is… impressive when he does join. Hopefully we don’t need him. Bruce also provides most of our medical care, since none of us are too keen about doctors.” 

 

Bruce simply waves shyly at the Commandos while retorting, “Still not that kind of doctor.”

 

Steve sends him a smile and then says, “This is where things get odd.”

 

“Just get on with it Cap.” Is the ever-helpful response. 

 

“This is Thor Odinson. He actually doesn’t have another name, we just call him Thor.”

 

Dernier interrupts. “Je suis désolé, avez-vous dit Thor? Comme dans le Dieu des dieux Norvégien Dieu du tonnerre?” _I’m sorry, did you just say Thor? As in the God damn Norse God of Thunder?_

 

Thor looks delighted that someone recognized his name. “Bien rencontré, frère de bouclier!” He booms. _Well met, shield brother!_

 

Dernier blinks at him owlishly and turns back to Steve. “Thor?” He asks helplessly. “Tu as vraiment un putain de dieu sur ton équipe?” _You actually have a fucking god on your team?_

 

“Il est grand d'avoir autour.” _He is great to have around_. Steve grins at the look on Dernier’s face. “For those of you who are not Dernier, Thor is the Norse god of Thunder. His talents include flying, calling down lightening and destroying things with Mjolnir.” Thor happily swings his hammer in front of him. 

 

“Hey Tones?” Steve asks, turning to his husband. “Mind losing the helmet at least?” There is a pause and then the armor is shuffling, pulling away so Tony can step out. 

 

“Sentry mode.” He orders off handedly, then frowns when the suit doesn’t respond. “Dammit. No JARVIS, no sentry mode.” Tony rolls his eyes. “Damn thing is fritzy since the jump anyway.” 

 

Steve’s instantly worried. “The arc reactor?”

 

Tony stops him with a wave. “Feels fine. Suit is alright, just a little clunky without JARVIS to help with the interfacing.” 

 

They are interrupted by an incredulous Bucky. “Did that guy just come out of a fucking robot?”

 

Tony spins to face him. “I did indeed buttercup. And it’s not a robot, it’s my suit. And it happens to be my newest suit so be nice. That thing costs more than you could spend in your lifetime.” 

 

Bucky looks like he is caught between amused and offended, a place frequented by anyone who spends time around Tony. 

 

“This is Tony Stark.” Steve puts in before Bucky can land on offended. “Howard’s son.” 

 

This cause an uproar that takes several minutes to calm. While the Commandos are ranting and raving, Tony looks up at Steve with understanding in his dark eyes. “You need to not be married for awhile?” He asks in an undertone. 

 

Steve grimaces. “It’s not me.” He says pointing at his chest. “It’s me.” He continues with a gesture at Rogers, who, he notices with alarm, seems to be studying his and Tony’s interaction. 

 

“It’s ok babe.” Tony says. “Life is different in this time. I am not going to put you in danger. I am not going to put Rogers in danger. Do you want me to take off my ring?” He asks quietly. 

 

Steve is shaking his head forcefully before the question is even fully formed. “Absolutely not.” He retorts vehemently. “I put that ring on you and it will stay there.” 

 

Tony smiles at him fondly. “Calm yourself. I was just asking.” 

 

It takes another minute for the Commandos to quiet down enough to hear Steve. “Tony is also known as Iron Man, and he has the suit. It’s got lots of firepower and it can fly.”

 

Now for the bad part. Steve hesitates, wondering exactly how to do this. 

 

“So Cap, are you going to introduce us to that frankly terrifying shadow you have there?” Monty’s voice breaks into his musings. 

 

Steve turns to James. “It’s up to you.” He breathes, so only James can hear him. James reaches out and grips Steve’s elbow for a moment, then he lifts his hands to remove his mask and goggles. Turning back to the Commandos and blocking their view of James in the process he says, “This is the Winter Soldier. He is sometimes called the Ghost. He is almost as strong as I am and he is absolutely lethal at both close and long range.” A brush of fingertips across his lower back signals that James is ready. Steve swallows and then says bluntly as he steps to the side, “His name is James Buchanan Barnes.” 

 

Dead silence fills the clearing. The Commandos are all staring at James, most with shocked disbelief. Bucky is looking at his future self with a dizzying array of emotions crossing his face. Steve doesn’t even try to decipher them. He is more focused on James. Reaching out, he places a gentle hand on James’s shoulder and feels him lean into it to ground himself. 

 

It is Steve’s younger voice that breaks the silence. “Buck…” It is a broken noise. He is staring at his best friend’s future, pain and horror plain on his face. Rogers has his hand fisted in the hem of his best friend’s shirt in a gesture that Steve is very familiar with. He does it to James all the time. Needing the contact to reassure himself that James is there, that it wasn’t an illusion. 

 

Steve feels Tony fidget uncomfortably at his side. It is going against every instinct he has not to comfort Steve when he looks that broken, despite it not being his Steve. Steve shifts his hand slightly so that it brushes the back of Tony’s and his husband calms at the touch. 

 

Bucky stumbles forward, closing the gap and dragging Rogers, still attached to his shirt, along with him. James reaches up to grab Steve’s hand where it rests on his shoulder. He uses the hold to pull Steve forward with him as he heads toward his younger self. Steve goes easily, gesturing with his free hand to keep the rest back. 

 

The four continue forward until they are only a couple feet apart. The movement caused the firelight to glint off James’s metal arm, and caused Morita to exclaim, “Holy Fuck! How in the hell-“

 

Steve cut him off harshly. “Don’t. Don’t ask. I told you there were things I couldn’t explain and this is one of them. Suffice to say that a lot of fucked up shit has gone down since we were with you last.” 

 

He takes a shuddering breath to try and steady himself, locking eyes with Rogers and for one brief moment letting all the guilt, horror, pain and anguish he still feels over James show in his eyes. Rogers chokes on a breath and clenches Bucky’s shirt tighter. Steve can feel James lay a gentle hand over his where it has migrated to the straps of James’s tactical vest. Steve drags his eyes over to meet James’s. 

 

With a rueful glance at their counterparts, James lifts his hands and signs quickly. _You know I don’t blame you for anything that happened. None of it was your fault and you need to stop blaming yourself._

 

“Was that sign language?” Rogers asks, clearing his throat. “Is Buck – I mean are you – can you?”

 

James snorts a little. “I can hear just fine punk. Quit your stammering.” His voice is different now, deeper and huskier, almost a growl, but the tone is all Bucky. Steve can see some of the tension ease from the Commandos at the sound. 

 

Clint pipes up from behind them. “I’m the deaf one.” Steve can hear the smirk in his voice. He rolls his eyes.

 

“Clearly he has aids so he can hear you. We all just learned to sign so that he didn’t have to wear them at home all the time.” 

 

James speaks up. “Jim is still looking like his brain is about to explode. Like Steve said, we can’t explain how it happened, but yes this is my arm now.” He extends his left arm, the mechanics whirling quietly as he shifts. “Stark’s given me some pretty sweet upgrades, not that that should surprise any of you what with him being Howard’s brat and all.” 

 

Steve shoots Tony a quick glance and he can see Tony’s expression shuttering. He turns back to James and signs _Buck you asshole, do you ever think about the words coming out of your mouth?_ James looks at him blankly for a minute, then glances at Tony and winces at his expression. “Fuck.” He mutters. James moves to Tony, whispers something to him briefly and waits until Tony blinks and his expression softens before nodding and moving back to Steve. 

 

All the byplay has given Rogers and Bucky a chance to compose themselves, and now Bucky asks hesitantly, “The arm – you can control it? Can you feel anything?” 

 

James laughs. “My reflexes with this thing rival Steve’s. I control it just like you control your arms. You don’t really think all that much about how to move them right? Just think about what you want to do and then do it? Same thing. As for feeling – right now I have some pretty sensitive pressure sensors in it. Means I can tell when I am touching something. But I can’t feel heat or cold or anything like that, and surface textures are a bit beyond me.” 

 

“Working on that.” Tony interjects from behind them. “If you would sit still for five fucking minutes and let me test somethings out. But no….you would rather suffer from substandard tech when you have a technical genius with a full lab just a few floors down because…wait remind me again why you refuse Barnes?” 

 

Some of the Commandos are blinking at Tony in fascination and Steve has to fight down a laugh. Even experience with Howard wasn’t enough to truly prepare you for the force of nature that was Tony Stark. 

 

“Because the last time I let you play with my arm, you didn’t let me leave the lab for three days! If Steve hadn’t come back from his mission then and dragged you out I am pretty sure we’d still be down there!” James retorts, then less joking, “But I may need you to take a look when – if – we get back. It’s been a little strange since we got here.” 

 

“Guess the jump wasn’t great for the electronics.” Tony mused. “Implies some sort of electrical current was used in the jump. Backs up what Cap was saying about the noise.” 

 

“Ok so now that introductions are out of the way and you believe we are who we say we are can we all relax?” Steve addresses the question to the entire group. 

 

It is Thor, of all people, who breaches the divide first, stamping over and dropping himself by the fire before turning to Dum Dum and inquiring, “Have you any sustenance to share, shield brother?” 

 

Dum Dum stares at him for a moment, then shrugs and offers Thor a ration kit before sitting down next to him. That is all it takes before the others start to move back to the fireside, Avengers and Commandos mixing and cautiously making attempts at conversation. 

 

Steve gestures James, Tony, Bruce, Bucky and Rogers over to a space just slightly removed from the others. 

 

“Ok Tony, any ideas on how we got here? Or how we get home?” He asks.

 

Tony scratches at his beard and replies “Well we know it was some kind of machine. With what we know about your, James’s and Hulk’s hearing ranges I think Bruce and I can piece together some info there.”

 

“Hang on,” Bucky jumps in. “James and Hulk?” 

 

James looks tempted to smack his younger self upside the head. He snorted, waving a hand in the air. “James you idiot. Stevie is the only one who calls me Bucky anymore.” 

 

Steve winces slightly. “Yeah I ..uh…was somewhat less than successful at the name switch. Only time I ever called you James it was followed by Buchanan Barnes.”

 

James smiles at him. “Steve I told you it doesn’t bother me when you do it.” 

 

“I know I just….anyway,” he switches topics quickly after noticing the growing alarm in their younger counterparts faces. “Hulk is Bruce, in a manner of speaking. Sorry Bruce.”

 

Bruce shook his head ruefully. “It’s alright Cap. Hard to explain it otherwise. And Tony is right. Between what we know about that and how you described it as it was happening, we are definitely talking some kind of machine. We could probably figure out a few more probable details, but I am not sure it is worthwhile. Even if we could figure it out – which we can’t –“ Tony makes a disgruntled noise, “there is no way we could build anything like that here. I think we just have to hope it is temporary or that nutjob brings us back.”

 

“Or until Coulson figures out what happened?” Steve asks with a slight smile. 

 

“As much as I hate to admit it, Bruce is right.” Tony grumbled. He was frowning and rubbing his chest, Steve noted with alarm. 

 

“Tony.” Tony glanced up at his tone, then glanced down at his chest as if he hadn’t realized what he was doing. With a quick smirk he quipped, “Just the cold. Makes it ache. I promise I’ll let you know if anything feels off.” His eyes are serious above his smirk, so Steve nods. 

 

Steve ignored the questioning looks from the two younger versions and motioned for them all to head back to the fire. 

 

In their absence the others had succeeded in throwing together some kind of dinner, and portions were being passed around. Steve sat down on an empty log between Tony and Rogers. Steve felt Tony stiffen slightly as Gabe, who was on Tony’s other side, tried to pass him a serving. Leaning forward, Steve snagged the bowl Gabe was holding out, took a bite and then gently placed it in Tony’s lap. Tony sent him a grateful look and started jabbing suspiciously at the contents of the bowl. Leaving him to it, Steve turned to find Rogers watching the exchange. 

 

“Tony doesn’t like to be handed things.” He said simply. Then he caught motion out of the corner of his eye and grinned at his younger self and Bucky, who was just beyond him on the log. “Watch.” Steve tilted his head just slightly to where James was slinking around the fire towards where Natasha and Clint were sitting. He crept up behind an oblivious Morita until he was just a hairsbreadth away. Then he leaned down and growled, “You’re in my spot.” 

 

“JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH” Morita yelped and toppled off the log. The others burst out laughing, and James glanced over and winked at Steve before settling calmly on the log next to Natasha, who hadn’t reacted to his appearance with anything more than a quirked eyebrow.

 

His counterpart looked a little more at ease as he watched. “Buck is still a little shit then?” He asked in an undertone to Steve. He nodded. “Some things don’t change.” 

 

They lapse into silence and Steve listens to the voices of his friends that he had long since said goodbye to. He doesn’t even realize that his breath has started to quicken and hitch until James appears behind his shoulder and hauls him to his feet. He guides him away from the fire and through the trees until they are out of earshot. Tony follows a few moments later and says, “Thor is distracting them.” 

 

As if this were a signal he was unaware he was waiting for, Steve’s knees went out from under him and he crumpled to the ground. 

 

“Hey, hey, you’re ok babe.” Tony kneeled down next to Steve and drew him in. 

 

Steve curled into his husband’s embrace and gasped, “I can’t – my chest – Tony- “

 

“Breathe hon. I know, it’s a lot to take in. Everyone is taken care of, James and I got you, take whatever time you need.”

 

“They are all here. I never thought I would see them again. I never got to say goodbye and now they are here and – what am I supposed to do? How do I just pretend that everything is fine?”

 

It is, surprisingly, James who has the answer. “Steve, what did you do when you found out Peggy was alive?” 

 

“I – I went to visit. I just wanted to grab what time I had with her.”

 

“And knowing that she was dying and her time was limited?”

 

“I tried to make the most of the time we had.”

 

“So do the same here. We could get dragged back to our time in an hour or weeks. No way to tell.” Ignoring Tony’s grumble of annoyance, James continued softly, “We just appreciate the time we have with them now, ok punk?”

 

Steve gave a half-hearted smile, “How’d you get so wise, jerk?”

 

Something flickered behind James’s eyes and Steve straightened. “Buck?”

 

James shook his head ruefully. “It’s nothing, Steve. Just…” He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No one expected you to live as long as you have Stevie. I spent our childhood being told not to get too attached to you. Never listened, but I was always terrified that each winter would be the one to finally take you away. I always tried to make the most of the time I had with you, just in case…”

 

Steve lurches to his feet and pulls his best friend in. James’s arms go around him and they simply stand there for a long moment as Steve fights back tears. 

 

Finally, Steve pulls back. He turns and Tony puts a hand on his shoulder. “Are you ok, babe?”

 

Steve leans down and presses his forehead to Tony’s. “Not really, but I can keep it together.”

 

“We can stay longer.”

 

Steve shakes his head and glances around quickly before kissing Tony swiftly. He has to take a moment to make sure he is composed and then leads James and Tony back to the fire. 

 

They have only gone a few steps before they hear heckling. Raising his brow at the other men, Steve picks up his pace. He strides into the clearing to see Jim bent over something while the rest of the Commandos and the Avengers mock him good naturedly. 

 

Steve puts on his ‘Captain America is disappointed in you” face and props his hands on his hips before clearing his throat. The Commandos immediately straighten and shut up. The Avengers quiet too, but they are still grinning. 

 

“You realize we could hear you from way the hell back there.” 

 

“Sorry, Cap.” Monty apologizes, the other Commandos echoing him.

 

“Funsucker.” Clint remarks with a grin. Gabe turns to him in surprise. 

 

“Yeah, Cap, no harm in a little challenge is there?” Sam asks with a smirk. 

 

Morita looks back and forth between the Avengers and Steve and asks slowly, “What?”

 

Steve tries to keep his face straight as he replies, “This lot is a bunch of insubordinate assholes. I try my best but they still don’t give me the proper respect. Should have seen them before I got my hands on them. Bunch of lone wolves that no one would work with.”

 

The Commandos stare at him for a moment and then Bucky snorts and doubles over laughing. The Avengers quickly follow and Steve feels a grin creeping over his face despite his best efforts. 

 

“Seriously, though, what the hell are you doing?”

 

“Your boy Thor here said that we wouldn’t be able to lift his hammer.” Dum Dum explained.

 

“So of course you had to try.”

 

“Obviously! It has to be some kind of trick. Not even Rogers can lift it.”

 

“I know.” Steve laughs. “I tried before.”

 

“But you were actually close.” Tony said. “The thing creaked at least.”

 

“Try it now!” Clint demands. 

 

Unease flickers through Steve and he glances around the circle before he shakes his head. “Like I said, it didn’t work before, no reason it would work now…”

 

“Nuh uh.” Sam says, climbing over the log he had been sitting on and dragging Steve over to Mjolnir. “One more attempt.”

 

Steve sighs and wraps one hand half-heartedly around the handle. He tugs lightly and stumbles as the hammer lifts easily. All noise around the fire ceases abruptly as Steve stares at the hammer in his hand. He raises his eyes to meet Thor’s knowing ones. Thor is the only one that looks like he anticipated this.

 

“But… how... I’m not… there is no way I am worthy.” He protests, shoving the hammer in Thor’s direction. 

 

“Perhaps that is why she has deemed you such.” He says cryptically before taking pity on Steve and taking Mjolnir from him. Steve backs away from him and Tony snags his arm and guides him to a seat on a log. As soon as he was sitting, the others were clambering around Thor, demanding they get another try. 

 

Tony looked at him critically. Steve managed to scrounge up a smile for his husband. “I am not going to fall apart Tones.”

 

“No.” Tony agreed. “You are far too stubborn. But today has been – a lot.” He finishes lamely. It startles a laugh out of Steve. 

 

“Because normally our lives are so calm and normal and boring?”

 

“Well, not exactly.” Tony concedes, with a gentle smile. His body language changes slightly, closing off, but before Steve can ask, the log jostles as Rogers sits down next to him, Bucky following. 

 

“Didn’t want to try again?” Tony asks the two. They exchange a look and then shake their heads. They lapse into silence again, but this time Steve focuses on the laughter of his friends and family and sinks into a peaceful calm.

 

Rogers watches the assembled teams for a few minutes and then asks in an undertone, “I know there are things you can’t explain. But can I ask you something?” At Steve’s cautious nod, he continues. “I know things have happened. Bad things. Definitely to Buck,” here he swallowed thickly and studied James across the fire. “But also to you. And your team – none of the other Commandos are on it, which speaks for itself there. And you wouldn’t just leave your team if you weren’t struggling earlier. I guess what I am trying to ask is…did you all start this haunted or is this a result of what has happened to you?” 

 

Steve can’t fight back the hysterical laugh that breaks out at the question, biting his fist to muffle the noise. Tony turns to him in concern and he manages to repeat the question for him. 

 

Tony grins and answers the startled younger man. “If you give Steve a moment to collect himself I am sure he’ll answer you himself, but being on this team hasn’t made us more haunted – it fixed us. All of us. Well maybe not Thor so much, it is a little hard to tell with him. But honestly look at the team. Three of us were active duty soldiers in war zones. Three are ex-assassins. Every single one of us has been tortured more than once and not one of us can sleep through a week without nightmares. The whole crew has PTSD in some form or another, er sorry, shell-shock? Is that the term now? Regardless the point stands. Movie night is always a challenge because we have to avoid all the triggers.” 

 

Rogers and Bucky are now looking thoroughly horrified, but Steve has managed to get himself under control. 

 

Tony continues in a softer tone, “So yeah, we are a pretty fucked up group, but we are a family. We protect one another and help one another through all that shit. We understand one another enough to be able to help, because of all that. You think we are haunted now, you should have seen us before we came together. Steve wasn’t really kidding earlier. No one would work with anyone. Well, except Natasha and Hawkass. Natasha actually wrote my recommendation and specifically said I was ‘not recommended’. Sam was the only mostly well-adjusted one – but even he dropped everything at the drop of a hat to dive right back into the chaos. I think he wasn’t coping with real life as well as he seemed. None of us were coping well. Several of us attempted suicide. Didn’t take, obviously, but not for lack of trying. This team saved all of us. What you see now isn’t haunted. It’s healed.”

 

When Steve looks back to see how the younger men were taking this, he finds them looking…rather blank. “Yeah, Tony has that effect on people. He doesn’t quite grasp the concept of too much information.” 

 

“No..I..uh…yeah just a lot to process.” Rogers murmurers. They watch the good-natured bickering happening on the far side of the fire as Rogers and Bucky try to deal with the abundance of information they were just given. 

 

After a few minutes, Steve turns to Rogers and says “Look, we don’t know how long we are stuck here. So you mind if we tag along with you? I don’t know where you are headed, but it’s not like we have anywhere in particular to be. Plus, Buck and I have been here before and while everyone on my team has spent some time in war zones of one form or another, the things I saw here were….”

 

Bucky and Rogers nod. “You know exactly how I feel about working with people other than my team behind enemy lines.” Rogers says with a wry half smile. “But this is my team in a way. You trust them like you trust the Howlies right?” 

 

“More. They aren’t just my team. They are my family. I trust them the way that right now you only trust Bucky.” Steve answers without hesitation. Rogers tilts his head and eyes Tony considering. Tony just raises his eyebrows and stays quiet for once in his life. 

 

Bucky looks between the three of them and then narrows his eyes at Steve suspiciously. Steve arranges his face in his most neutral expression. He knows that it is probably a wasted effort, Bucky has always been able to read him, but he maintains the mask regardless. 

 

Bucky nods slowly and says, eyes never leaving Steve’s, “I think they should come. They could be useful. We are on our way to take down another base. Think you can help us out with that?”

 

Tony answers with a grin. “Taking out a Hydra base with the Howling Commandos? It is like a childhood dream come true.”

 

Steve rolls his eyes. Not long after he and Rogers set a watch rotation, making sure there is a Commando and Avenger on each rotation just for everyone’s piece of mind. It was a little early for the Avengers, but he could tell that the Commandos were exhausted and his team all had experience in getting shut eye when they could. There was a little grumbling, but everyone settled down quickly. 

 

Steve stretched out next to the fire with James on one side and a gap on the other for Tony, who was on the first watch. He closed his eyes and fell asleep to the familiar scents and sounds of his teams.

 


	2. You Tried To Tell Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Trigger Warning**  
>  Brief mentions of past torture

Steve stretches and carefully extracts himself from between James and Tony, who are both still asleep. He makes his way over to where Bucky is chatting with Clint. Both look up and grin. 

 

Steve shakes his head ruefully, and asks “Do I even want to know what you two are talking about?” 

 

“Clint here was just telling me about some of the monsters you guys have fought. Seriously Stevie I would ask how in the hell you ended up in the future fighting monsters on a regular basis with a gang of wannabe superheroes, but honestly if it would happen to anyone it would be your dumb ass.”

 

Clint sputters. “I resent that statement. We ARE superheroes asshole.” 

 

Steve rolls his eyes. “Thanks Buck. Always knew I could count on you to keep my ego in check. Listen, is there any coffee?”

 

Clint’s eyes widen in horror. “Oh shit. Please tell me there is coffee. There most definitely needs to be coffee. We can’t be held responsible for what happens if there is no coffee.” 

 

Bucky looks up from where he was rifling through the supplies and arches an eyebrow at Clint and Steve. 

 

Steve smirks. “Let’s just say that Tony is not really human before four cups of coffee and Natasha is scary, or scarier than usual, without her coffee.”

 

As if to prove his point, Tony picks that moment to stumble over to them. He squints blearily around and his hair is standing in every direction. 

 

“Coffee?” he whines at Steve.

 

Steve can’t help the affectionate grin that crosses his face at the sight. “Soon,” he assures Tony. “Bucky just put the water on.” Steve guides the swaying Tony to the log where Clint was sitting. 

 

“Yay Bucky.” Tony mumbles sleepily as he lists sideways to end up sprawled out with his head in Clint’s lap. Clint just snorts and moves his arm to keep Tony from rolling off the log. 

 

As soon as the coffee is done, Steve fills a cup and waves it under Tony’s nose. Without opening his eyes, Tony makes grabby hands at the mug. Steve chuckles and hands it to him, passing a second mug to Clint. Clint takes it and makes his way over to where Natasha is stirring. 

 

Tony takes a gulp of coffee and screws up his nose. He opens his eyes then to glare balefully at Steve and Bucky. “This is not coffee.” He protests. 

 

Bucky blinks down at the cup he is holding and then at Steve, who shakes his head and responds, “That is the best coffee that the army has to offer and it is the only thing we have. It can’t be any worse than some of the things DUM-E has made you over the years.”

 

Tony grimaces and drains the rest of the cup, handing it back to Steve to refill. “Fine. I will drink your sub-standard coffee. You should write a complaint letter or something though,” this last was addressed to Bucky. “This stuff is vile. I am pretty sure even the sludge they gave me in that fucking cave was better than this.” 

 

Steve chokes on his own coffee. 

 

Looking between the two of them Bucky asks curiously, “Cave?”

 

Before Steve can catch his breath enough to protest, Tony is rambling on. “Oh yeah. Cave. In Afghanistan. I was showing off my latest design and got kidnapped. Spent three months in a cave in the middle of the desert being tortured. Well I guess the whole time wasn’t torture. I mean surgery without anesthesia is not not torture, but like Yinsen was trying to save me right? So not really torture. The waterboarding though, that was definitely torture. Not fun my friend. And I guess nothing on what happened to y-“ 

 

Steve finally manages to get ahold of himself long enough to clamp a hand over Tony’s mouth. Bucky is staring at him with undisguised horror. Keeping ahold of Tony’s mouth – he is still trying to talk and pushing against Steve’s gagging hand ineffectively- Steve looks around to see who is awake. He sighs in relief when he spots Sam making his way toward them. 

 

Catching sight of Steve’s expression, Sam quickens his pace. When he reaches them, Steve immediately says, “Afghanistan.” 

 

Sam’s expression flickers between sympathy and amusement. “Right. Come on, man.” He says as he hauls an unprotesting Tony to his feet and takes the extra coffee Steve hands him. “Let’s go over here and get you awake enough to be horrified by everything you just said.” 

 

Steve turns back to Bucky warily. One side of Bucky’s mouth quirks up and he says, “I guess we should stop asking him questions, huh? He takes everything and runs with it don’t he?”

 

At Steve’s reluctant laugh, Bucky continues. “Don’t worry, I won’t pry. Heard enough to know that is a topic best avoided.” 

 

After everyone has gotten up and had coffee or breakfast, the teams break down the camp and begin a slow march through the woods. The base they are heading to is not quite a full day’s march away and Steve and Rogers had decided to camp a decent distance away. So, they could take their time and still stop early. 

 

It ends up being a surprisingly enjoyable day. They stop for lunch along a small stream and they all take the opportunity to clean up. They are halfway through eating when Bucky suddenly puts down his fork and demands, “Steve. Hold up your left hand.” 

 

Steve does without thinking and it isn’t until the sunlight reflects off his wedding band that he realizes he hadn’t put his gloves back on. 

 

“I knew it!” Bucky crowed. “You managed to get hitched!”

 

There are exclamations from the Commandos and Steve freezes momentarily, mind racing. He swallows the spoonful of rations in his mouth and is just about to respond when Natasha speaks.

 

“Yeah he’s been married for nearly two years. They are disgustingly sweet and a pain in the ass to live with.”

 

“You live with them?” Gabe asks.

 

“We all live together, actually.” Tony replies. “It’s like a team-bonding-thingy apparently. It’s not like I didn’t have the space.”

 

“Weird.” Dum Dum comments around a mouthful of food. “So two years, huh?”

 

“Yeah,” Steve answers. “But we’ve been together almost four.”

 

“Must be a hell of a dame.” Jim says and then becomes very interested in the plant by his food at Natasha’s lizard glare.

 

Steve makes the mistake of looking at Bucky. He is watching Steve carefully again and Steve pointedly returns to his meal, making sure not to glance in Tony’s direction. 

 

James steps in at this point to help Natasha subtly redirect the conversation, telling stories of the chaos that is Avengers Tower. Steve gives a sigh of relief and spends the rest of lunch quietly eating and making sure his team does as well.

 

It is only midafternoon when Steve finds a clearing he likes for them to spend the night. One side backs up to a river with only a thin layer of trees between the water and the clearing – thick enough to shield them from view, but thin enough to allow them to hear if anyone tries to come at them from that direction. 

 

They have only been settled for a few minutes when Natasha goes over and drags a whining Clint to his feet. “Come on, time to spar.”

 

“But Tash! We are in 1940-whatever! Shouldn’t that excuse us from training?”

 

“No.” Steve answers, one side of his lips twitching up.

 

“But Caaaaappppp…..” Clint complains, but follows Natasha back to the larger clearing they had passed not long before they arrived at their campsite. Everyone else trails along behind, the Commandos out of curiosity and the Avengers because they know that either Steve or Natasha will come back for them if they don’t come.

 

Natasha and Clint head for the middle of the clearing and face off. 

 

“I got winner.” Sam calls, beginning to stretch. The others start to warm up as well as Natasha springs at Clint. Rogers and Bucky come to stand next to Steve and Tony.

 

“Jeez you all don’t hold back in training do you?” Rogers asks, eyes tracking the pair as Natasha gets her legs around Clint’s neck and takes him to the ground. Steve grins, watching Clint squirm and curse as Natasha nonchalantly keeps him pinned and examines her nails. 

 

“They are holding back.” He answers. They watch as Clint finally taps out and Sam bounces into the center to face off with Natasha. 

 

The sparring continues, Commandos getting involved as well. Steve turns to Rogers and says, “We should come up with a plan for tomorrow.”

 

Rogers nods and gestures Bucky over while Steve turns to find Tony. “Tony is my second-in-command.” He answers the surprise on both Rogers’s and Bucky’s faces. Both of their gazes’ flick to James for a moment and then they nod. 

 

They hash out a plan, Tony scrounging up an extra comm for Rogers and Steve deciding to take Bruce’s for Bucky. Bucky is fascinated by the idea of a radio you put in your ear, and he and Tony break off into technobabble as Rogers and Steve finalize the attack plan. Once it is finished, he and Rogers watch as Clint darts in to steal Dum Dum’s hat before dancing back out of reach, bowler perched crookedly on his head. 

 

Bucky hesitantly catches Steve’s attention, “Can I ask a question?” At Steve’s noise of assent, he continues. “You told us that Clint is your snipe, rightr?” Bucky waves a hand toward where Clint has somehow managed to get ahold of Dum Dum’s jacket as well. 

 

Steve nods and answers the unanswered question as well. “Depends on the mission. We don’t always get sent as a whole team. Sometimes Clint goes as our sniper and sometimes Buck does. If we get an assemble – uh, if all of us are needed – then it again depends. Clint is always in a sniper role. We don’t call him Hawkeye for nothing you know. His eyesight is incredible. Sometimes Buck also does sniper work, other times he is on the ground with me and Nat.” 

 

“On the ground?” 

 

Tony reinserts himself into the conversation at this point. He has spent enough time around Bucky to understand the silent concern that Steve has read. “Show him.”

 

Steve’s brow furrows. “Show him?”

 

Tony nods. “We could all use the entertainment.”

 

Steve’s brow smooths as he gets what Tony is after. How many times had the team stopped to watch when he and Bucky started to spar? They were so closely matched that it was the only time either of them let out their full strength in practice. Still - “Are you sure that is a good idea?” 

 

Tony nods. “You know that we enjoy it.” Steve turns back to the younger two and grins. “Want to see something?” They nod and Steve takes a few sidesteps away from them, looking for the angle he needs. 

 

Reaching back, he slips his shield into his hand and then without warning flings it full speed across the clearing at James. James’s left arm comes up to grab the shield out of the air. 

 

Ignoring the sputtering sounds of surprise from around the clearing, his head turns slowly to eye Steve who is grinning at him. “Wanna spar?” 

 

Clint whoops in delight and the Commandos look startled at the idea of Sarge and the Cap sparring. James cocks his head and Steve can see his eyes flick towards his younger self and then the others before coming back to meet Steve’s. Then he hands the shield off to Natasha and stands, moving to the middle of the clearing. Steve mirrors him, and the two stand a couple yards apart. 

 

For a moment, neither moves. Then in a whirl they come together. They exchange blows, neither giving the other ground. Steve blocks the incredulous voices of the Commandos and focuses on the fight. 

 

He gets in a lucky kick that sends James flying back into a tree. The cries of alarm from the Commandos are overridden by Sam’s calm, “He’s fine.”

 

In support of these words, James suddenly launches himself at Steve, tackling him to the ground. They grapple, and Steve manages to pin James for a moment. “That all you got?” He taunts. James heaves and twists, and they go tumbling across the clearing. James succeeds in getting on top of Steve, but suddenly freezes with his metal hand on Steve’s throat. His eyes widen in panic. 

 

“Steve! I can’t … I don’t… Tony!!” James cries. Tony is at their side in an instant. “I can’t let go! The arm… it’s not responding. Fuck!” James’s voice is steadily climbing as his panic does. “I can’t do this again. Tony you gotta take it apart or disable it or something! Get it off him!! I can’t hurt him again! No, no, no, please no, not again…”

 

At this point Steve, who has been trying to get James’s attention, grabs him by the collar and hauls him down until he is forced to look at Steve. “Bucky! You aren’t hurting me! I mean, yeah, this is not the most comfortable, but I can breathe. Just calm down ok? Breathe Buck. Tony will help, won’t ya Tones?”

 

Tony, who had figured out pretty quickly that Steve wasn’t in any immediate danger, nods as he gently lays a hand on the one James has wrapped around Steve’s neck. “James, I think whatever sent us back is really screwing around with all our electronics and stuff. The suit was glitchy, you already mentioned that your arm was behaving weird, I wouldn’t be surprised if Clint’s hearing aids start putting up a fuss. The good news is that it looks like your arm just stopped responding. It is not acting independently, just not acting at all. Means we can take as long as we need to get it off of Steve without hurting him. And it might start working again on its own.” 

 

James has calmed some, but there is still an edge of panic in his gaze. Tony studies him and then softly adds, “Look around James. You really think any of us would stand by and let you hurt him? We have two Steves, Thor, I can get back in the suit, and if that still wasn’t enough – although let’s be real here, you’re tough but not that tough – I can guarantee that Hulk would come out to play if Steve was really in danger.”

 

“He’s right, James.” Bruce says from where he has settled by Steve’s side opposite Tony. He has been quietly examining James’s hold while Steve and Tony talked him down. Something gets through to James, because he takes a deep, shuddering breath and some of the tension drains from his posture. 

 

Turning to Steve, Bruce asks “How are you feeling? Clearly he is not blocking your airway, but otherwise?”

 

Steve shrugs slightly. “I’m fine. He has a pretty good grip, but nothing serious.”

 

Bruce studies his face. Captain America might not lie, but Steve Rogers had a nasty habit of hiding injuries. That was actually a habit shared by the rest of the team, so they had all gotten pretty good about learning each other’s warning signs. Evidently satisfied with what he saw, Bruce leaned back and cautioned, “Let us know if you start getting light headed. I am not entirely comfortable with the position of his fingers.” 

 

Tony’s gaze snaps to where James’s fingers are pressing bruises into Steve’s skin and then shakes his head sharply. “Alrighty then ba- uh, Steve” Tony just manages to catch himself before the endearment slips out, “Let’s get you outta there yeah?” Steve reaches out and squeezes Tony’s hand gently, the motion blocked from view by Tony’s body. Tony’s fingers clench on his tightly for a moment and he nods almost imperceptivity. 

 

Steve then shifts his other hand to tap James’s knee. “Budge up for a moment huh Bucko?” James shifts his weight to his knees and off Steve, allowing him to squirm into a more comfortable position. Once he is flat on his back with nothing jabbing him, Steve taps James again. “Ok you’re golden.” James hesitantly lowers himself back down until he is hovering over Steve’s stomach. Steve rolls his eyes. “Not gonna break me Bucky.” He says, his voice gently teasing. James glares at him, but settles finally. 

 

With the two of them more or less comfortable, Tony opens the access panel on James’s arm and starts prodding inside. He starts to mutter to himself about connections and manual manipulation. Steve lets the familiarity calm him down. Listening to Tony ramble is something he has a lot of practice with. He likes to spend time down in the workshop with Tony, usually sketching or reading while Tony works, keeping a steady stream of words going. He’ll alternate between narrating what he is working on to Steve, sniping back and forth with JARVIS over technical points and yelling at the bots and threatening to donate them to assorted charities, schools and, in one memorable instance, traveling sideshows. 

 

Steve smiles slightly as he listens to Tony rant at JARVIS about the necessity of having at least one coffee maker in every room of the tower. He should interject- heaven knows Tony doesn’t need any more help pumping caffeine into his bloodstream - but he is rather comfortable laying on the couch and besides, trying to put together a sentence seems like a lot of effort. 

 

Maybe he will just lay here and sleep…

 

A sharp pain on the side of his face brings him back to awareness. Right. Not in the workshop then. He comes to the realization that Tony’s rambling has stopped and instead Bruce seems to be saying his name repeatedly. Blinking his eyes open, Steve looks up into concerned brown ones. 

 

Bruce stops repeating his name after he makes eye contact and instead goes “Steve I need you to try to stay awake. James is cutting off some of the blood supply to your brain. Tony has almost got it figured out so just try to stay conscious for us a little longer ok?” 

 

Steve tries to nod in affirmation, but stops when the motion makes everything go slightly swirly. Blinking rapidly to try and disrupt the sensation (he’d close his eyes but had a feeling that wouldn’t go over well), Steve searches for James’s eyes. Soft grey eyes filled with guilt and barely constrained panic meet his and Steve tucks his hand into the back of James’s knee and squeezes. 

 

“Got it!” Tony crows in success as James’s fingers spring open. Steve closes his eyes against the sudden rush in his head, but he feels James start to scramble off him. Steve lurches upright, ignoring Bruce’s cry of protest, to wrap James in a hug. James freezes and Steve murmurs quietly, “It’s ok Buck. It wasn’t your fault. I’m fine.” 

 

James tentatively wraps his flesh arm around Steve and then shudders, burying his face in Steve’s shoulder as he tries to keep from sobbing. Steve just tightens his arms and turns his head to talk to Tony. “Can you fix his arm here?” 

 

Tony glances up from where he was bent over the wires in James’s arm, his face tightening at the bruises beginning to bloom on Steve’s throat. Then he frowns down at the wires he was picking through. “Honestly it seems like it might have just been a short. The controls worked fine once I isolated them. There must be a disconnect somewhere between the arm’s functional controls and James’s brain. Just got to find it. If it is just a fried wire or connection or something like that I should be able to fix it now. Otherwise we will have to wait until we get back to my workshop.” 

 

Steve nods, leaving Tony to prod at the arm and mutter, and turns his attention to the others who were hovering like a flock of nervous birds. Rolling his eyes, he said “Seriously. I’m fine.”

 

Sam snorts. “Man, you have told me you were fine while you were bleeding out in the damn street. Forgive me for not trusting your judgement. Bruce? What do you have to say?”

 

Bruce, who had been lightly assessing Steve throughout the previous exchanges, huffs out a laugh. “In this case he actually is telling the truth.”

 

Ignoring Clint’s “Well that’s a first”, Steve scans the faces in front of him. The Avengers had all relaxed at Bruce’s assurance, but the Commandos were still eyeing the four of them on the ground warily. 

 

Knowing they would be fine after a while, Steve continues searching until he found Bucky.

 

He is standing off to one side, gaze flickering from Steve’s neck to James who is still huddled in Steve’s lap. His expression hovers somewhere between devastated and horrified. Steve sighs and then says quietly, “Bucky come here.”

 

The Bucky in his lap startles a bit at his name while the other stares at him blankly. Rolling his eyes slightly, Rogers pushes Bucky in Steve’s direction. 

 

Out of the corner of his mouth Steve murmurs, “Bruce could you give us a minute? And get the others to go back to the camp maybe?” 

 

Bruce squeezes his shoulder and then moves out of the way for Bucky to basically collapse by Steve’s side. Steve doesn’t say anything, just watches him while he struggled with something. He knew he could outwait Bucky any day. As long as he kept quiet, Bucky would eventually get around to whatever it was he needed to say. Sure enough, only a couple of minutes passed before Bucky spoke, his voice cracking on the words.

 

“What did he – I – mean again? He kept saying again. I – do I – did I hurt you? Why would I do that? I protect you Stevie. It’s all I’ve ever done.”

 

James shudders so hard at the words that he nearly wrenches his arm from Tony’s hold. Steve tightens one arm around him and reaches out with the other to force Bucky to meet his eyes. 

 

“Listen to me very carefully. I was injured and yes, you were involved –“ he is interrupted by a sob from James that is echoed by Bucky. Tightening his grasp on both, he continues. “But it was not. Your. Fault. Do you hear me? None of it was your fault. If anything it was mine.” 

 

Tony makes a noise of protest. “Steven Sta- Steven Grant Rogers. We have been over this. What happened was no more your fault than it was James’s. And Bucky, he is right about one thing. Nothing that happened was your fault. You saved him James. Remember that.” 

 

Pulling Bucky in, Steve holds both versions of his best friend, letting them calm themselves down. He stays silent, the only sound being the Tony’s muttering as he tinkers in Bucky’s arm. 

 

After awhile, Tony makes a triumphant noise and sits back.

 

“I am the best. Seriously what you all did before you knew me is a mystery. Give it a whirl there Robocop.” Tony says with a grin. Bucky pulls out of Steve’s embrace to stare at Tony incredulously, but James just gives him a small smile and flexes his arm. Gaining confidence when it follows his command, James opens and closes his fist a few times and then picks up a stick and flips it between his fingers. His smile relaxes into a relieved grin and he leans over to give Tony a hug. Then he carefully brushes his fingers across the bruises on Steve’s throat and squeezes his shoulder before standing and pulling his younger counterpart to his feet. 

 

“We are gonna go back and join the others. I will send Bruce over to check you out again.” Waving his hand to cut off Steve’s protest, James flicks his eyes from Steve’s towards Tony and continues, “We all need the reassurance Steve.” Steve follows James’s gaze and he can see just how close to breaking Tony is. He nods and the two move off.

 

Steve waits until they are out of sight and then reaches out to thread his fingers with Tony’s. Tony’s grip on his fingers is bordering on painful, and Steve immediately pulls him in murmuring, “It’s okay, I’m okay” repeatedly. Tony nods, burrowing his head into Steve’s chest. Steve presses his lips to the top of his husband’s head and rubs a hand down Tony’s spine. 

 

“When you stopped responding…” the words are muffled by his shirt, but Steve can hear the terror in them. Shifting his hold on Tony, Steve pulls back enough to place his forehead against Tony’s. “You saved me Tony. You didn’t panic and that kept Bucky and I from panicking too. You think anyone else would have been able to keep Bucky even remotely calm during that situation? Bucky trusts you to worry about me just as much as he does, just like I trust Rhodey to do the same with you. I know that this is hard – having to hide our relationship, but thank you. I love you.” 

 

Steve shifts his head slightly to press his lips against Tony’s, tasting copper from where Tony had bitten his lip hard enough to bleed. This tangible proof of how hard Tony was trying to protect his secret, despite the terror of the last hour, causes a surge of tenderness to well up in Steve and he tightens his grip on Tony. They remain entangled until they hear Bruce making his way toward them. 

 

After getting reassurances from Bruce that the serum was already working on reducing the swelling and heading back to the campsite, Steve leaves Tony with Bruce and slowly makes his way around the group. He checks in with the Avengers, all of whom were holding up surprisingly well. Then again, their lives were weird enough that it takes a great deal to throw them off balance. 

 

Steve also takes the time to talk to the Commandos. He knows that Rogers would already have made his way through, but he had caught the sidelong looks the Commandos were shooting him and James and wanted to soothe them himself. 

 

After he had spoken to everyone, Steve wandered back over to James and Bruce. He dropped to the ground, stretching out and putting his head in James’s lap. 

 

Steve sends a regretful look toward Tony, who gives him a sad half smile from where he is sprawled next to Rogers. 

 

The rest of the day passes in lazy conversation and relaxing. As dusk approaches, Steve gets everyone’s attention and sets up a watch rotation for the night. 

 

Steve puts James on the first watch, knowing sleep would be elusive for his friend. He is so distracted by keeping an eye on James slipping into the shadows that he almost misses the searching, confused, and achingly sad look that Tony has narrowed on him. 

 

When James is out of sight, Steve sighs and then startles as he catches Tony’s gaze. “What is it?” He asks.

 

Tony simply watches him for another minute before saying slowly, “I spent a good deal of time talking to Rogers this afternoon.”

 

Steve nods. “I saw you two chatting earlier.” He almost asks, but experience has taught him that it is better to let Tony spell things out in his own time.

 

“I – You – he –“ Tony grunts in annoyance and then blurts, “You and he are very different. More so than I expected.”

 

“How so?”

 

Tony watches him carefully as he explains. “Rogers is so… hopeful? Ridiculously so for someone in the middle of WWII. You have the same sense of optimism but yours is tempered with a healthy dose of realism. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you are so much more cynical than he is. You are harder, somehow.”

 

Glancing around to make sure none of the Commandos are in hearing distance, Steve says, “Tony there is a lot that happened between the Steve Rogers over there and me now, hell even me when we met.”

 

“I know that – “ Tony begins, but Steve holds up a hand.

 

“I don’t know if you do. I mean, I am sure that you get it on some level, but Tony… What would you do if Rhodey died on a mission tomorrow? Do you have any idea how that would change you?” Steve heaves out a breath and rubs a hand down his face before looking across the fire at where Bucky is crashed next to Rogers. 

 

The two are curled into one another, Bucky hunting out Rogers’s warmth as unerringly as Steve did to Bucky before the war. It is odd to see it from the outside. Steve watches them as he continues.

 

“Losing Bucky was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. Even when I lost my ma I had Bucky there to ground me. When he fell… I went completely off the rails. And then I died. And then I woke up in what could have been an alien world. I told Buck once that I didn’t care if he was a totally different person because Steve Rogers died in the war. I didn’t know who woke up.”

 

Steve turns his gaze back to Tony. “You helped me find who I am now. I know I am different, but I like who I am with you and the Avengers.” 

 

A touch of unease swirls through Steve as he suddenly wonders if the same is true for Tony, or if his husband would prefer the innocent young man on the other side of the fire.

 

His insecurities must show in his eyes because Tony’s soften and warm as he replies, “I like this version of Steve Rogers. You balance and match me in all the right ways.” His teeth flash as he grins, “I would eat Rogers alive.”

 

Steve snorts. “Yes, you most definitely would. I would never have been able to handle you back then.” 

 

Tony’s huff of amusement warms Steve as they settle down for the night. Just before he drifts off, the thought crosses his mind that he should try and keep Tony and Rogers as far apart as possible.


	3. You Went The Wrong Way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eep. I am sorry this took so long to get out. This is the reason I was wary of posting a WIP - sometimes real life gets in the way and I leave you guys hanging. My apologies to anyone following this story! 
> 
> For anyone with a good memory - I went back and took out a phrase that would have contradicted a good chunk of this chapter. It was a snippet from Tony's ramblings that I had meant to take out earlier and spaced. My bad. 
> 
> **Trigger Warning**  
>  Semi-graphic description of medical treatment.

The night passes fairly uneventfully, with only one nightmare from James – hardly surprising after the sparring incident. It is ‘fucking ass early’ as Clint grumbles when Natasha kicks him awake, because Steve wants to reach the base before sunrise. It is the best chance they have of taking the base off-guard. They gather their things and silently make their way towards the base.

 

When they get close, Steve sends Clint and Bucky ahead to set up their sniper nests and start surveillance. The remaining group settles in to wait for Clint’s go ahead before moving forward. 

 

Instead, when it comes, Clint’s voice is worried. “Cap we have a problem.”

 

“What happened Hawkeye?” 

 

“They know we are coming. There is a major force guarding the base. They are just waiting there. Another group splintered off just after I got eyes on. I would bet they are heading your way to circle around and cut off your retreat.”

 

“Shit, another group just left.” Bucky reports. 

 

“Hawkeye, how bad is it? Keep in mind that we do have the Commandos as well. It is your call.”

 

Clint swears again and then says softly. “Tell Bruce I’m sorry. There are just too many, Cap. Enough that I am not even sure that will be enough. We need Hulk if we are to have any chance.”

 

Steve winces and turns to Bruce, who studies him a moment and then starts unbuttoning his shirt. 

 

“What changed?” He asks, ignoring the Commandos confused looks.

 

“They were warned.” Steve directs his answer to the entire group for the benefit of those without comms. Thinking quickly, he revises their strategy. “If they already know we are coming there is no point in a stealth attack. We’ll send in Hulk, Thor and Iron Man first. There is no way they will be prepared for that. Sam, Natasha and Bucky – you stay back to take care of the two splinter groups. The rest of us will follow the heavy hitters in.”

 

There are nods and murmurs of acknowledgement as Steve turns to Bruce, who is stripped down to the special thin pants he and Tony designed to accommodate his transformation. “You need some help?” He asks.

 

Bruce nods. “I am too edgy to get angry.” 

 

Steve nods to Natasha and warns the Commandos, “You want to back up.”

 

He flinches as Natasha smacks Bruce hard across the face, first one way, then the other, before she darts out of range. Bruce doubles over and his back ripples as the shift starts. It doesn’t take long – the pain of Natasha’s hits shoving Hulk out in defense. 

 

Steve hears curses and muttered prayers coming from the Commandos, but keeps his attention on Hulk.

 

“Hulk,” He says to get his attention. When large green eyes meet his, Steve continues. “Follow Iron Man and Thor and go nuts big guy.”

 

Hulk grins toothily and lets out an ear-splitting roar before bounding off after Tony, trees flying in his wake. Thor laughs and takes off after them. Steve turns to see James and Natasha slipping away into the trees behind them. Sam snaps a quick salute and spreads his wings before taking off straight up to get over the trees. 

 

The two small groups on their way, Steve turns and grins at the Commandos, who are staring in the direction Hulk had gone. A moment later they could hear a roar and screams as Hulk made it to the base. 

 

Steve laughs. “That’s our cue.” He took off in the direction of the base, trusting the men to follow. 

 

Steve stopped just before he broke into the clearing in order to take in the situation before jumping in. “Hawkeye? Bucky? Iron Man? How is it going?”

 

“Hulk is smashing to his little heart’s content.” Tony’s amusement was clear. There was a sharp crack and then an explosion as Thor hit something with lightening. “And Thor is also enjoying himself immensely. We could probably use some – take that you little bastard! – more support by the building on the west side of the clearing – looks like it is the barracks or something. I think Hulk might have woken them up.”

 

“Copy that, Iron Man.” Steve says before turning to find that Rogers had quietly been relaying the information to the Commandos. Steve calls on all his pent-up rage and guilt and every other emotion that Hydra instilled in him and hardens his face. Morita glances up and curses as he takes a step back. The others look to see the cause of the reaction and stare at Steve in shock. 

 

“Let’s fucking kill the bastards.” Steve growls, before spinning and sprinting into the clearing, the Commandos living up to their name and following with howls.

 

Clint was right to call in the Hulk. The base is crawling with Hydra soldiers. Steve is positive they never took down a base this well manned, but he can’t devote much time to considering that as he slices and hurls his shield through the mass of black uniforms. 

 

They are just managing to hold off the Hydra forces when Steve’s comm crackles to life.

 

“Cap, we finished off the flanking squads and are heading your way.” Sam’s voice is slightly breathless, but he swoops into sight a moment later, guns already firing.

 

Steve sees a flash of fiery hair as Natasha dives into the fray, and he knows James won’t be far behind. The extra hands are enough to turn the tide of the battle in their favor and slowly they start to push the Hydra soldiers back toward the base. 

 

Of course it couldn’t be that simple. 

 

The bullet catches him just as he leaps to catch his rebounding shield. The shot is enough to send him tumbling off his trajectory, landing flat on his back, air punching from his lungs at the impact.

 

Steve hears the chorus of his name hollered by his teams, but is too busy trying to drag air back into his protesting lungs to respond. Then Sam is skidding to his knees next to Steve, yanking off his gloves and goggles. 

 

“Steve! Come on man talk to me.” Sam pleads as he hones in on the wound seeping blood in Steve’s side. 

 

Steve manages to gasp in an unsteady breath and immediately breaks into a coughing fit that makes his side burn in pain. After a minute of hacking, he chokes out, “I’m… alright… air…. Knocked out…. Bullet didn’t pierce… anything vital….”

 

“That’s convenient,” Natasha remarks, in the wry tone she used to cover up intense worry, “because someone is going to have to talk your boy down.” 

 

Steve quirks an eyebrow at Sam in question.

 

“Uh,” Sam winced, though his hands remained steady on Steve’s side. “James saw you go down and stay down and it…”

 

“Fuck.” Steve gasps. “Winter Soldier?”

 

Sam nods. “It looks like it is working in our favor at the moment – he is pretty focused on the Hydra guys and you know how he is when he reverts. He is cutting them down left and right. But once you get your breath back we should probably break him out. You know he only listens to you.” 

 

Steve carefully takes a full breath and lets it out. When it didn’t inspire another coughing fit, he pats Sam’s hands. “Alright, help me up.” 

 

They switch holds on Steve’s wound and then Sam stands and hauls Steve to his feet. 

 

Hulk, Tony and Thor are still taking out Hydra men at the edges of the fight. Everyone else had backed carefully away from James, who was slaughtering the terrified remaining forces.

 

Steve steadies himself on Sam’s shoulder. Pitching his voice to carry, Steve calls across the clearing, “Солдат! Прекратить и воздерживаться.” _Soldier! Cease and desist._

 

James freezes at the command and allows the soldier in his grasp to fall to the ground. 

 

“Для меня, солдат.” Steve continues in a hard tone. _To me, soldier._

 

When James is standing in front of him, Steve lowers his voice slightly. “Миссия выполнена. Все цели ликвидированы и цели выполнены. Стой, солдат.” _The mission is complete. All targets eliminated and objectives met. Stand down, soldier._

 

Steve waits for James’s posture to ease before finishing, trying to keep the plea from his voice. “Вернись, Buck. Все нормально. Я в порядке. У нас все хорошо. Он вам не нужен. Отпустите его и вернитесь.” _Come back, Buck. It’s ok. I am ok. We are all fine. You don’t need him. Let him go and come back._

 

James stares at him blankly for another minute before life flickers behind his eyes. “Steve?” He croaks. 

 

“Yeah, Buck.” Steve sighs in relief.

 

“You- you weren’t moving. I saw you get hit. You didn’t get back up.” James stammers haltingly. He is starting to shake with the adrenaline rush he always suffers after reverting to the Soldier. 

 

“I know.” Steve says apologetically. “Got the wind knocked outta me. I’m sorry Buck.”

 

“Sorry?” James’s voice cracked. “Why would you – I was the – Steve – “

 

Steve reaches out with the hand not pressed to his wound and pulls James in until their foreheads meet. “Breathe, Bucky. You only hurt the Hydra soldiers. Didn’t even attempt to go after the Commandos or Avengers. And you snapped right out of it when I called.” 

 

James nods and then seems to realize that Steve is bleeding. “Fuck! Why didn’t you get this taken care of?” He frets, going full mother hen. 

 

Steve rolls his eyes and ignores James’s agitated fussing as he surveys the battlefield. The battle is over, Thor rounding up the few remaining survivors. Rogers has already taken a team into the base to flush out anyone who may be hiding as well as set the charges to destroy the base.

 

Morita materializes in front of them and Steve grimaces. “Can we go back to camp before we deal with it?” He asks. 

 

Morita raises a brow. “You want me to? I didn’t know if you had a medic on your team now you’d prefer. I thought you said something about the green guy being a doctor.”

 

Steve shrugs. “Bruce provides a lot of our medical care, but he isn’t actually a doctor. You have dug plenty of bullets out of me before.” He smirks.

 

“Lord knows that is true enough.” Morita grumbles, gesturing for Steve to proceed him. The others trail after them as they make their way back to the clearing they had camped in the night before. With no one left alive at the base, it should still be a safe spot.

 

Steve is flagging by the time they reach the clearing. He has been bleeding steadily the entire way back and his vision is starting to blur. Sam and Morita lead him to a spot next to the fire that Clint and Natasha are starting. 

 

“Med kit?” Sam asks Morita, who is helping Steve out of his uniform top. 

 

“In my pack.” Morita responds as he peers at the entry wound.

 

Sam rifles through the pack and finds the kit, passing it to a waiting Morita. Morita grabs the long tweezers and warns Steve, “This is gonna be a bad one, Cap. You may want some of the boys to hold you down.” 

 

Sam winces. “You outta morphine?”

 

If Morita had been looking at Steve he would have possibly seen the pleading look on Steve’s face. As it is, he is examining the wound so simply asked. “No, we’ve got plenty. Wouldn’t do no good though would it?”

 

“Come again?”

 

There is enough confusion in Sam’s voice that Morita finally looks up at him. Brow furrowing, he glances between Sam and Steve. He studies Steve’s face for a long moment before comprehension dawns.

 

“You didn’t tell them? Dammit Steve, why the hell not? I know you have been injured with them – Sammy boy here told us as much yesterday!” Morita’s voice is laced with disapproval.

 

“Tell us what?” Sam’s voice has hardened, and Steve is fairly certain he has worked it out.

 

Morita gives Steve another disapproving look before turning to Sam. “Drugs don’t work on Steve. You know he can’t get drunk? Same principle. The serum changed his cells too much and sped up his metabolism too much. We have given him almost the lethal dose before and it wears off before we can actually get anything done.”

 

“He better be joking.” Tony’s voice is hard and flat when it sounds from behind Steve. 

 

Steve freezes and feels his shoulders rise. He cowardly refuses to turn and look at his husband. Instead he addresses the ground between his feet. “I’m sorry.”

 

“Why the fuck would you not tell us about this?” Tony asked. “Even me?”

 

“I realize that this is a big revelation and all, but could you discuss this later? If I don’t get this bullet out soon we are going to have to cut you back open Cap.” Morita interrupts, shoving Steve’s shoulder impatiently trying to get him to lie down. 

 

“WHAT?!” Sam shrieks. Steve winces as he stretches out on the ground, partly from the pain but mostly from the thought of attempting to sooth his soon to be irate teammates.

 

“Oh come on.” Morita grouses. “You gotta know that he heals faster than normal folks.”

 

“Of course!” Sam yells.

 

Morita quirks a brow at him. “And you just thought – what? – that the bullets, shrapnel, and all the other shit Cap here ends up with inside him just magically disappears?”

 

“No… I thought the serum might…. “ Sam’s voice is still too loud, but he is distracting himself, probably reviewing their entire friendship through this new lense.

 

Far more worrisome is the icy silence from Tony. 

 

Tony comes when Morita waves him over, pinning Steve’s shoulders at his request. The position leaves him hovering over Steve’s face, but he refuses to meet Steve’s eyes. Morita positions Sam on one of Steve’s legs, then scans the others nearby for another set of hands. James takes a half step forward, but retreats under Morita’s impossibly dark glare. Something else Steve will have to smooth over.

 

With Monty pinning Steve’s remaining leg, Morita moves to straddle Steve and pin his hips down. “Ready Cap?” 

 

Steve takes a deep breath and nods. He can’t help the moan that escapes as Morita begins to probe the hole in his side. 

 

“Steve, look at me.” Tony says quietly. Steve’s eyes snap to Tony’s face. Tony’s eyes are swirling with emotion, but his voice is steady as he continues. “Just focus on me. You can do this.”

 

Steve’s back arches hard, nearly dislodging Morita who swears and shouts, “Hold him! I almost have it!”

 

“Hold on to me.” Tony instructs Steve, who immediately wraps his hands around the Iron Man suit’s wrists. The metal creaks as Steve’s grip clenches and a vicious scream tears itself from his throat as Morita curses.

 

With a twist of his wrist – and another broken cry from Steve – Morita drags the bullet free. Steve goes limp under his friends’ hands, breathing hard. 

 

Tony releases Steve as soon as Morita has slapped a gauze pad over the sluggishly bleeding hole. He disappears into the woods, ignoring Steve’s cry of protest. 

 

Sam releases him as well, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. He levels Steve with his most potent ‘Sam Wilson Does Not Have The Time or Patience For Your Bullshit’ look. 

 

“We will be discussing this later. But you had better get your ass after that man right now.”

 

Steve scrambles to his feet too quickly and sways as the blood loss hits him again. Sam mutters darkly and grabs his arm, steadying him again as he drags Steve to the place Tony disappeared. By the time they reach the treeline, Steve can see straight once more and pulls his arm gently from Sam’s too hard grip. 

 

“I’m sorry Sammy.” He says quietly. “I promise I will explain. You may not like why I hid this but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

 

The harsh lines of Sam’s glare softened slightly, though the hurt didn’t diminish. “Go calm him down. We will talk later.”

 

Steve weaves his way through the trees back to the clearing they had sparred in the night before. Tony is out of the suit, glaring at the spot where James had pinned Steve. Steve can see Tony tense as he hears Steve’s quiet approach.

 

“Guess I should have figured it out, huh?” Tony’s voice is dark and bitter. “I am supposed to be a genius right? I know how the serum affects you. It makes sense if you stop and think. But I read all of Howard’s notes. Never once does he mention this.”

 

“Tony-“ Steve tries, but Tony simply raises his voice and continues.

 

“And sure, maybe he didn’t know or maybe he just didn’t record it or it got lost somewhere. All of those possibilities are explanations I can accept. What I can’t accept is why the fuck you didn’t tell me.” 

 

There is a thread of impossible pain twining through the anger in Tony’s voice. He shudders hard and Steve is helpless to keep from closing the gap between them. He tries to lay his hand on Tony’s shoulder to turn him around, but Tony yanks out from under his hand. 

 

“I did it to protect you. To protect all of you.”

 

“How the hell-“ Tony yells, finally turning to face Steve.

 

“How the fuck does you knowing this do anything but hurt you?” Steve asks, icy voice cutting straight through Tony’s heat.

 

For once in his life, Tony appears to be at a loss for words, but Steve is already over the edge. 

 

“Do you know how many fucking times Jim has had to do that to me? How many times my friends had to hold me down so he could help? You want to guess how many times he did it before he stopped puking his guts up after? I can guarantee you that he is at the stream right now scrubbing his hands and arms. We will have to go send someone to get him before he starts to bleed. He can’t handle doing this, it destroys him a little more each time, and yet he keeps doing it because there is no one else. I have seen what this knowledge does to my friends and you are out of your Goddamn mind if you think I would willingly let that happen to the team, let alone to you”

 

Steve is heaving through his teeth by the time he is done. Tony’s face is slowly morphing from angry and hurt to horrified understanding.

 

They stand there in silence, until Tony finally ventures, “And when you get hurt on Avengers’ missions? What then?”

 

Steve grunts. “SHIELD Medical handles whatever I can’t do myself. My body will heal itself if I make sure to get everything out of the wound or set the bones correctly.”

 

“SHIELD? Fucking Hell Steve. I can’t believe you would choose them over Bruce and us.”

 

“You don’t get it Tony.” Steve snaps exasperatedly. He drags a hand through his hair. “Bruce? Really? You saw how that went back there. I try to stay still and quiet and let them do what has to be done, but I don’t always have control over my reactions. You really think Bruce would be able to dig a bullet out of me without Hulking out?”

 

Tony looks slightly chagrined as he jerks his head in acknowledgement. “Fine I can see the wisdom in not letting Bruce be involved. But it is not like none of the rest of us wouldn’t be able to do it.”

 

“I can’t let you. It is too much to ask you all to carry. It was easier to keep you in the dark. Better for everyone.”

 

“No, see, that I don’t believe. We are a family, in case you missed my moving speech to Rogers and Bucky. That means we rely on each other and carry each other’s burdens. Answer me honestly Steve. Do you really prefer those hacks at SHIELD or would you rather we do it?” His eyes bore into Steve, leaving him unable to lie. 

 

So Steve attempts avoidance. “Tony I already said, I can’t let you-“

 

“Stop.” Tony slaps his hand over Steve’s mouth. “I am not asking about that. I want to know if having some strangers restrain you while another digs around inside you is better than having your family do it? Take all the ‘consequences’ on us out of the picture. When that bullet is being dragged out of you, which scenario is better for you?”

 

Tony moves his hand to cup the side of Steve’s jaw. Dark eyes search his until Steve clenches them shut and shudders. “God help me. You know the answer. It is infinitely better to have you there. You ground me. When I first came out of the ice I honestly believed it might be easier not to have to see my pain reflected in the friends holding me down. But then the first time I had to go to SHIELD for help…. God Tony it is horrible. I – I lose myself in it. They don’t have people hold me. They tried once, but it takes too many of them. Now they-“ He cuts himself off. 

 

“What do they do Steve?” Tony prompts gently.

 

“They shackle me to the table. They have these metal bars that they latch over me, except for the area they need to work in. Then only the doctor has to be in the room. So, yes, Tony, I would rather you do it. I would rather have you holding me and telling me it will be alright. How the fuck could I not?”

 

“Jesus fucking Christ, Steve.” Tony grounds out as he drags Steve’s forehead to the crook of his neck. Steve lets himself collapse into Tony, lets his husband carry this for the moment. “No more. Do you hear me. I will never again let that happen. We will figure it out the same way we do everything – together.”

 

They stand wrapped together for several minutes, Tony humming quietly under his breath, soothing Steve. Finally Steve mutters into the skin of Tony’s throat. “Sam is gonna kill me.”

 

It startles a laugh out of Tony. “I am going to kill you, you stupid self-sacrificing bastard.” He gently pulls Steve’s head up to look him in the face. “You need to explain this to the team. See if you can get them all here.” 

 

Steve sighs and nods, lifting a finger to activate his comm. “Cap to Avengers. Anybody still on comms?”

 

“What did you do to piss off Sam?” Comes Clint’s voice in reply.

 

Steve cringes as he responds. “That is why I am calling. Can you gather all the Avengers and bring them to the clearing where we sparred last night? There is something you all need to know.”

 

“Sure thing Cap. Everyone is back to camp so we shouldn’t be long.”

 

“Thanks Clint.” Steve turns off his comm.

 

“They are on their way.” He relays to Tony, who nods before pulling him down into a searing kiss. They are both panting by the time he pulls away. “What was that for?” Steve manages.

 

“Please stop scaring me.” 

 

It suddenly hits Steve that Tony has feared for his life twice in as many days and his face twists in regret. “I’m so sorry Tones.”

 

Tony shakes his head. “Definitely not your fault. However, you should know that as soon as we get home you and I are taking a long fucking vacation.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Steve replies, corner of his mouth quirking upward in amusement. “Where are we going?”

 

“Doesn’t matter. We won’t be leaving the hotel room.” 

 

Steve snorts and ducks his head to give Tony another long kiss, trying to infuse as much love and longing as possible in the seconds it lasts. They break apart at the sound of the others’ approach.

 

“You better not be planning on kissing me until I forget what an asshole you are.” Sam’s voice is sharp with lingering anger.

 

“Why is Steve an asshole?” Bruce asks blearily from where he is swaying next to Natasha. 

 

Tony snorts and moves to guide Bruce to sit down. “I have been telling you all that Steve is an asshole for years. You never listen.”

 

Sam spares a moment to pin Tony with his glare before returning it to Steve. His glower only increases as he answers Bruce. “Turns out that drugs don’t work on Steve.”

 

Bruce, clearly struggling to focus, murmurs, “Steve doesn’t really strike me as the druggy type.” 

 

A noise like an angry cat is the only response from Sam before Tony takes over. “Not those kind of drugs Bruce. Well, I mean, probably those too, but we are talking about something very different.”

 

Steve can almost see the gears turning in his head, but misses seeing the realization dawn because Clint marches over and decks him full in the face. Swearing, Steve doubles over and hastily realigns his now broken nose.

When he tunes back in to the conversation around him, it is to hear Sam’s hissed, “…no pain meds and your response is to cause him more pain?! After he just underwent field surgery? What the hell is the matter with you?”

 

Steve shakes his head at Sam’s rant considering that Sam had appeared to be two seconds from punching him earlier. Clint is silent in the face of Sam’s anger, and Steve lifts his head to see why. 

 

Clint is staring directly at him. Once Steve makes eye contact, he says in a deceptively pleasant tone, “I thought you were different. I thought I had finally found a place, a team, where no one was lying or keeping secrets or any of the other shit I have spent my entire life dealing with. But no. The fucking pinnacle of truth and justice, ladies and gentlemen. Lying to us all.”

 

“That isn’t fair, Clint.” Bruce’s quiet tone breaks the tense silence that follows. 

 

“No Bruce. He is right.” Steve counters. He turns to Clint. “Yes. I lied. I have been lying from the moment you met me. At first it didn’t matter. We needed to take down Loki and we did. And then we all went our separate ways immediately after. I thought that was the end of it. But then we drifted back, one by one, showing up at the tower, learning how we could fit off the battlefield. And before I knew it we were a team. A family, as Tony so eloquently put earlier. The first time I got injured after that all I could see was the look on Bucky’s face as he had to leave camp the first time Jim dug shrapnel out of my lung, the way Jim will stare at the fire for hours after, the shaking of Dum Dum’s hand as he passes around a bottle of scotch. I couldn’t do it again. I am your captain. You are my soldiers, my friends, my family. You all are the reason I kept trying after waking up alone. How could I drag you down into my pain and horror? I had the ability to protect you from this. All I had to do was keep my mouth shut. So I did.”

 

“You had no right to make that decision for us.”

 

“How often do you gloss over injuries and evade medical, Clint? How long did you hide your nightmares and panic attacks after New York, Tony? How many times have you pushed aside your issues to help one of us, Sam? How often do you hide in your lab, Bruce? How many times have you refused to discuss the monsters from your past, Natasha? How often do you change the subject whenever someone mentions Loki, Thor?” Steve pauses to let that sink in a moment. “This is what we do. We all learned the hard way to depend on ourselves, to never let anyone see us vulnerable, to protect those around us from our darkness and sharp edges.”

 

“You never let us pull that shit, Steve.” Clint argues, guilt now trickling through the anger in his expression.

 

“I am aware of the hypocrisy of my actions.” Steve replies with a half-hearted smirk. “I never claimed to be perfect.”

“No.” Sam mutters. “Propaganda did and somehow we all keep forgetting that. I’m sorry Steve.”

 

Steve shakes his head. “I get why you are mad. I just thought I was doing the right thing. Sometimes I don’t think these things all the way through…”

 

That gets at least a reluctant laugh from everyone. The tension in Steve’s frame eases at the sound and the knowledge that his friends are on the way to forgiving him. His muscles keep relaxing, however, and Steve’s last thought before the stress, the battle, the lack of proper nutrients and his wound send him spiraling into unconsciousness is a rueful, _Well this is not going to improve their tempers._


	4. You'll Never Escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter but pretty dense. 
> 
> We are almost to the end of the story! Only one (possibly two) more chapter I think. :)

Steve is dragged back to awareness by his revolting stomach. Groaning, he tries to curl up around it but gentle hands stop him. A familiar shape is pressed into his hand – one of the high calorie energy gels the Avengers all carry for him, James and Bruce. 

 

“Easy babe.” Tony murmurs, stilling Steve’s trembling hands and opening the pack for him. “Take it slow. You don’t want to make yourself sick.” Steve makes a conscious effort to eat slowly, but it is hard when his stomach feels like it is devouring itself. He makes a pathetic protest when the pack is taken away from him.

 

“It’s empty, Steve.” Tony’s voice is amused. “I have more food for you but only if you open your eyes and sit up.”

 

That seemed like a reasonable request, so Steve blinks and squints against the brightness of the late afternoon sun. He isn’t sure he can actually make it all the way up to sitting, but figures he should at least give it a shot. Steve is marshalling his strength for the attempt when Tony offers him a hand with a raised brow. Steve lets his husband drag him up to sitting. Tony keeps holding him upright and Steve discovers why as he feels James shuffle in behind him. Tony releases his hand, letting him slump back into James’s chest. As soon as he is settled, Tony presses a can of ham into his hands and Steve’s focus narrows to consuming calories as fast as possible. After the fourth can, Steve feels satisfied enough to pause and look around.

 

What he sees is upsetting. Steve is sprawled by the fire with James behind him and Tony crouched next to them. The rest of the Avengers are off behind Tony, closer to the tree line than the fire. Clint, Sam and Natasha are alternating between warily eyeing the Commandos and casting Steve betrayed, angry and concerned glances. Bruce is passed out with his head in Natasha’s lap. Thor appears to be slowly distributing chunks of a fruit bar to a group of small birds that has gathered near him.

 

The Commandos – Oh fuck, Steve thinks with a sigh. The Commandos are across the fire from the Avengers, as far away as they could get and still remain in the clearing. Steve meets Rogers’s searching gaze. After a moment, Rogers stands and makes his way over to the trio, Bucky shadowing him. Steve moves to get to his feet but Rogers waves him back, crouching down opposite Tony. 

 

“Listen,” he begins, expression slightly awkward but tone firm and serious. “I know we said that we wouldn’t ask you to explain, but after today I think we need more information if you want to stay with us.” The last is delivered with an apologetic shrug. 

 

“Yeah, I am not surprised.” Steve replies easily. Grabbing onto Tony, he levers his weight off of James. “Bucky, can you take everybody else and go back to the other clearing? Get Thor to carry Bruce – don’t wake him up.” James nods and moves to talk to the others. Turning to Rogers, Steve asks, “Is it alright if Tony stays? I don’t think my team will feel comfortable leaving me alone with how trigger happy the Commandos look right now.”

 

“That’s fair. I think he is probably the safest choice.” Rogers agrees with a wry glance back at his team. 

 

Tony looks between Steve and Rogers with disbelief. “Steve you aren’t actually planning on telling him anything are you? You know we can’t –“

 

“I don’t remember that base.” Steve interjects.

 

“ – irreparable damage to the – wait, what?” Tony stammers to a halt.

 

“You know I have perfect recall since the serum. I got a ten second glance at the map of Hydra bases and could pinpoint them on a map weeks later. But I have never seen the base we hit this morning before in my life. You’ve heard Howard’s stories, read the accounts, watched the documentaries – do you remember anything about it?”

 

Tony’s focus moves inward as he searches his memory. Confusion clouds his expression as he slowly answers, “No. Nothing. How is that possible?”

 

“I’ve got two theories. Either this happened before and something happened to make us forget, in which case nothing we say or do really matters, or we are in another dimension. If that is true then we have no way of knowing what is different or how the timeline would have turned out without our interference anyway. Either way telling the Commandos what they want to know doesn’t hurt us but not telling them will. We are in the middle of WWII. We have no supplies, no food, no way of telling where we are. We need them, Tones.”

 

Steve watches as Tony turns everything over. Finally, he nods. “You’re right. I just hope they let us stick around after you explain.”

 

Steve quirks his head. “One way to find out. Help me to that log, will you? I am not doing this sitting in the dirt.”

 

Bucky stops them with a gesture. “Are we talking full disclosure? You’ll answer all of our questions?”

 

Steve shrugs. “Not much point in hiding anything now.”

 

“Good.” Pitching his voice so that it wouldn’t carry past the four of them, Bucky continued. “Why didn’t you ever tell me you were into fellas?”

 

The other three freeze. Then Steve snorts and shakes his head. “Goddammit, Buck. I knew you were onto us.”

 

Bucky treats him to a thoroughly unimpressed eyebrow. “Please. You two are actually doing a fairly good job hiding it. I don’t think anyone else knows. But this moron is about as subtle as a brick wall, least to me.” He jerks a thumb in Rogers’s direction. “He has been infatuated with Stark here since that first night.” Rogers sputters as he turns scarlet with embarrassment. Tony slowly arches an eyebrow at him, a smirk appearing at the corner of his lips.

 

“Tony. Stop it.” Steve chastises before turning to Bucky. “I wasn’t hiding it from you or nothin’. No one – dame or fella – ever gave me the time of day before Peggy. It is legal in the future, men being together I mean. And Tony kinda snuck up on me. I was in love with him before I realized. Took me awhile to accept it.” He winces. “I was an asshole about it, to be honest. But what we said yesterday was all true. We’ve been together four years. Are you… um… are you okay with this?” Steve finishes hesitantly.

 

“Does he make you happy?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“That’s all I ever wanted Stevie. Don’t much care who with, long as they treat you right.” At this point, Tony’s giggling becomes too much to ignore and Bucky turns to him with a scowl. “I could be persuaded otherwise, mind. What the hell are you laughing at?”

 

“Sorry.” Tony gasps with a placating gesture. “But that was the conversation when Steve came out to James almost verbatim.” Bucky grumbles in annoyance, but refrains from further commentary. Tony and Rogers haul Steve to his feet. He sways a little once upright and Tony shoves another energy gel into his hand. Steve sends him a smile and lets Rogers help him over to the log.

 

“What is that?” Rogers asks, pointing at the pack. 

 

“It’s an energy gel that Tony and Bruce developed. Each one has about as many calories as a couple of C-Rations. We all carry them because Bruce and Buck and I often need quick fixes to tide us over. I’ll let you try one later.”

 

Rogers nods and then lowers his voice to mutter. “I … um… I’m sorry about … you know the whole… uh…” He is blushing scarlet again and Steve hurries to reassure him before it gets worse.

 

“I don’t mind. I mean, it is a little strange but you are me and I love him. How could I expect you not to like him? Just don’t try anything and it’ll all be fine.”

 

Rogers chokes on his next breath and manages to whisper-shriek “I would never!” before he catches the smirk Steve is wearing. He glares as he lowers Steve to the log and Steve laughs. 

 

Tony joins him on the log as the Commandos finally move in closer. Steve looks at them and sighs. “You want me to start explaining or do you want to ask questions?”

 

The Commandos look at each other before turning to Rogers. He thinks for a minute and then says, “Why don’t you start and then we will ask anything you don’t cover?”

 

Steve nods and tries to figure out where to start. “What is the date?” 

 

“December 5th? No 6th. December 6th, 1944.” Rogers replies. 

 

Steve closes his eyes and takes a slow breath in. He holds it for a moment and then releases it. Without opening his eyes he begins. “Dammit you already have the intel on this. You plan on going after Zola in a couple of weeks right?”

 

Rogers nods. “He is traveling through the Alps by train. We are gonna hit him midtrip so he won’t see us coming.”

 

“He will.” Steve counters harshly. “We never did figure out how he knew we were coming. But he knew. They were prepared for us. You will capture Zola, but – “ He takes a deep shuddering breath and finally opens his eyes, locking gazes with Bucky, “Bucky won’t come back from that mission.”

 

“No!” Rogers denial is swift and desperate. “No that can’t be. I wouldn’t let that happen.”

 

Steve gives a broken laugh. “Oh, but I did. I should have been able to save him. But I was too fucking slow – “ he stops and shakes his head. “Bucky fell.” Another deep breath. “And a couple weeks later I crashed a plane into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.”

 

“No.” Bucky’s denial is low and pleading. Rogers snakes an arm around his shoulders and Bucky crumples into his side, the two clinging as though they can change the other’s fate by holding tight enough. There is silence for several minutes as the Commandos attempt to deal with this information.

 

Monty is the one to finally break it. “How is any of that possible? You and Barnes are both clearly alive. If you crashed… and Barnes… the drop where we plan to intercept the train must be hundreds of feet...”

 

“I crashed into ice. The plane broke through and water got in… I, uh, I froze. The serum kept me in a type of stasis in the ice. They found the plane – and me – in 2012 and, well, thawed me?”

 

“Okay. I can believe that the serum did something impossible – I see you do impossible shit all the time Rogers.” Dum Dum concedes. “But what about Sarge?” 

 

Steve searches Bucky’s face as he says, “I still don’t understand why you never told me. You must have known something.” Awareness floods Bucky’s eyes as Steve turns to answer Dum Dum. “Azzano. Isolation. Zola was trying to recreate the serum. He hadn’t figured it out yet, but whatever he did to Buck enabled him to survive the fall. That’s when he lost his arm.”

 

“So… did he freeze too?” Dum Dum asks, tone suggesting he already knows the answer.

 

“No.” Steve replies shortly. He turns to Bucky again. “You gotta know that I wanted to come back for you. I didn’t want – I didn’t want to leave you up there alone. But no one would listen to me. Dum Dum threatened to chain me to a chair.” Steve drops his head into his hands.

 

Warm, calloused hands circle his wrists and tug gently. Steve lets them pull his hands away and opens his eyes to see Bucky crouched in front of him. “You didn’t know Steve. That fall should have killed me. You came for me in Azzano because there was the slimmest chance that I was still alive. If I had been honest about the changes I felt after Zola, I know you would have come after me – just to be sure. Chains, chair, Dum Dum and all.”

 

Tony speaks for the first time. “See. Bucky doesn’t blame you for what happened either. You are the only one who does.”

 

“He should blame me! He doesn’t know what happens!”

 

“So tell me.” Bucky adds. “You said I didn’t freeze so…”

 

“A soviet patrol found you. They handed you over to Hydra. Hydra gave you the new arm. Then they… they…”

 

“Hey. Hey, it’s alright Stevie. Breath bud.” Bucky’s long honed mother hen instincts rear as Steve’s breath quickens. He turns to Tony. “What happened?”

 

Tony’s eyes are dark and heavy but his voice is steady as he answers. “Hydra turned you into a weapon. They tortured you, brainwashed you, and erased all your memories. You were the perfect assassin. They would put you in cryo between jobs. For 70 years the Winter Soldier was a ghost story told to assassins and spies. Then Hydra fucked up. They did the one thing they should never have even contemplated.” A grim smile stretches Tony’s lips. “They sent the Winter Soldier after Captain America.”

 

“Oh God.” Bucky looks like he is going to be sick. “That is what he meant yesterday. About hurting you.”

 

“You weren’t you Buck.” Steve says softly. “You didn’t know what you were doing.” 

 

“How badly?” The question is directed at Tony.

 

“Ah.” Tony winces and casts a glance towards Steve before replying. “You stabbed him, shot him four times, beat his face in with the arm and watched as he fell into the Potomac…. And then you went in after him despite a dislocated shoulder and dragged him out.” 

 

“What?”

 

“Steve broke through your programming. Your mission was to eliminate him, but you couldn’t do it. You ran from Hydra that day and didn’t come back until you were sure you wouldn’t hurt wonder boy over here.”

 

“What happened earlier…”

 

“Steve is the only thing that reliably breaks the programming… but he is also often the cause of a flip. Steve got hurt – you went into offensive mode. According to Stevie it has been happening since you guys were pipsqueaks, now you just get a little scarier. There are some trigger words we have found as well that activate the Soldier, but Steve has always been able to snap you out of it like he did earlier.”

 

“You said I was an assassin. How many people have I hurt? How many lives and families have I destroyed?? Jesus, why are you letting me go anywhere but into a jail cell?” Bucky’s voice is rising with agitation.

 

“Bucky! You didn’t do those things. Hydra did.” Steve argued.

 

“Yeah, I am sure that is a real comfort to my victims Steve. I am sure they would be totally fine with me walking around a free man.” Bucky snaps.

 

“I am.” Tony says quietly.

 

Bucky’s head whips toward him. “What do you mean?”

 

“You killed my parents when I was 17.” Steve reaches over and lays a hand on the nape of Tony’s neck, giving it a reassuring squeeze. The issue was still a tender one between Tony and James. Steve’s heart ached with love to see Tony reassuring Bucky.

 

Tony gives him a small, sad smile and then, characteristically, tries to lighten the mood – “You have also shot Natasha twice and she is totally cool with you hanging around.” – unsuccessfully.

 

“I- I can’t – I –“ Bucky stammers as he starts backpedaling away. Rogers grabs him and tugs him so he collapses into Rogers’s chest. Rogers then wraps his arms around him and just hangs on as Bucky goes to pieces. 

 

A melancholy quiet settles over the camp, broken only by the crackling of the fire and Bucky and Rogers’s low sobs. Steve leans over and breathes to Tony, “I think we need to give them a minute. Would you take the chance to go check the others. I am sure they are fine but it has been a rough day for all of us. I could use another gel if anyone has one as well.”

 

Tony nods and uses Steve’s shoulder to lever himself to his feet. He groans and stretches before climbing over the log and setting off through the trees. By the time he returns – carrying three more gels – Bucky and Rogers have managed to collect themselves. Steve tosses Rogers one of the gels and quickly downs a second before turning to the Commandos and asking quietly, “What else do you need to know?”

 

Rogers is the one to answer, after hesitantly tasting the gel pack. “Banner.” He says succinctly around a mouth of purple gel.

 

Steve feels one side of his lips curl up with amusement as he says, “Bruce was studying the serum. There was an accident in the lab. The Hulk comes out anytime his heartrate gets above a certain point or when called upon. He is actually fairly intelligent. Since we became a team Hulk has never gone after one of us. In fact, he protects us.”

 

“So he isn’t a danger to us?” Monty clarifies.

 

“No. As long as you aren’t a threat to us.” Steve replies firmly.

 

Rogers casts a critical eye over the Commandos and then sighs. “Could you give us a few minutes? I will send someone to get you whatever we decide.”

 

Steve nods and drags himself to his feet. Tony follows him out of the clearing, ignoring the voices that rise in their wake. They make their way to the rest of the Avengers. Thor hadn’t bothered to put Bruce down when they reached the clearing, merely sitting on a rock with the physicist cradled in his lap. The others are standing at enough of a distance that they could talk without waking Bruce. They break off their conversation and turn as Steve and Tony entered the clearing.

 

“Well?” Sam asks as the two draw near.

 

“They are discussing it now.” Steve explains. At Natasha’s quirked eyebrow he expands, “I think they will let us stay. Bucky and Bruce scared them, but they wouldn’t turn on Buck and they accepted me despite my quirks. As long as they know Bruce isn’t a threat I think they will be fine.” James nods in agreement. 

 

“Well you ain’t wrong.” Bucky’s voice comes from the tree line. The Avengers all turn to face him as he steps into the clearing. “Like I told you before, Stevie - they’re all idiots.” He smirks and jerks his head towards camp. “We don’t mind you tagging along.”

 

Thor stands slowly and without hesitation heads back to the camp. The others fall in behind him. Steve catches Bucky gesturing for James to hang back. Figuring he needed time to discuss his new-found knowledge, Steve slings an arm over Tony’s shoulder and guides him through the woods. 

 

He regrets that decision almost immediately. He has barely reached camp when a hand metal hand clamps on his shoulder and spins him around. Steve’s spin is abruptly reversed by the flesh and blood hand that plows into his face hard enough to drop him. 

 

Over the ringing in his ears he can just make out Sam squawking about how everyone needed to stop punching the pain med resistant solider for crying out loud. Steve works his jaw and spits out a mouthful of blood before pushing himself up to stare cautiously at James, who is trembling in fury. 

 

“Buck…” He begins, but James cuts him off almost violently.

 

“NO! Dammit Steve I thought we were past this. Do you just tune me out when I talk? Am I wasting my breath right now? Is any of this going to sink into that fucking thick skull of yours?” 

 

Steve stares at him for a moment and then his gaze drifts to Bucky who is hovering over James’s left shoulder, face set in an identical expression of bewildered anger. The realization that Bucky wanted to talk to James about him hits him and he shrugs helplessly. Whatever James sees in his expression bleeds the anger away, leaving exasperated hopelessness. “Are you ever going to forgive yourself for what was never your fault to begin with?”

 

Steve drops his gaze as he spits another mouthful of blood into the dirt. “Don’t expect so.”

 

James groans and then steps forward to lay one hand on the center of Steve’s chest. He uses the other to force Steve to meet his eyes, which are dark with sympathy and understanding. “And yet you expect me too?” He asks quietly.

 

“I….” Steve honestly has no response to that, and Tony mutters from behind him, “Boy has a point Steve-o.” James searches his eyes for another minute than squeezes the back of Steve’s neck and releases him. 

 

Steve is lost in thought for the rest of the evening. When he curls into James’s side that night with a muttered apology, James simply wraps an arm around him and pulls him close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *NOTE ON TIMELINE – The Smithsonian lists Bucky’s fall in 1944 and Headline in CATWS dates March 1945. They always seem close together in the movie so I made the decision to put Bucky’s fall in December of 1944 and Steve’s plane going down in January of 1945. I figured they wouldn’t tell people for awhile after Steve had disappeared in the hopes of finding him….*


	5. This is Where it Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for those of you following this story... I have no excuse.
> 
> I kind of hit a wall with this chapter. I couldn't quite figure out what direction I wanted to go. Even after deciding I wanted to go ahead and turn this into a longer series I had two different endings that kept playing out. Eventually I wrote them both and flipped back and forth for weeks. Finally I decided to take parts from both endings that I thought were important and include them. Also during the time since I last posted my beta and I had a falling out. I apologize for any errors as I was self-beta-ing this chapter. 
> 
> I upped the rating on the fic after this chapter....
> 
> All that being said - here is the LAST CHAPTER!!! 
> 
> More notes at the end :)

Steve is startled awake mere hours later by Clint’s gleeful “PHIL!”

 

He quickly gets to his feet as the Avengers and Commandos scramble up out of their blankets. Sure enough, Phil Coulson is standing a few feet away, returning Clint’s exuberant embrace with a desperation that speaks of days of worry. 

 

“You know these guys?” Rogers asks wryly. At the question, Steve turns to see who accompanied Coulson. He grins when he spots Stephen Strange observing the assembled soldiers with interest. 

 

“Dr. Strange, I am guessing you are here to take us home?” Steve greets the sorcerer.

 

Strange inclines his head with a small smile. “Indeed. There are a few matters to discuss before we depart, however, and I believe Agent Coulson needs more time to mother hen over you all. I’ll just chat with these lovely gentlemen, shall I?”

 

The Commandos, who have apparently blown straight through their limits for weirdness, allow Strange to gentle herd them to the other side of the clearing. 

 

Steve turns back to Coulson, who has released Clint and is now casting an assessing gaze over the team. He lets out a cry of alarm at the blood stain on Steve’s side and rushes over. 

 

“Phil I’m fine! It is already healed.” 

 

“What happened?” Coulson demands, leaning over and pulling the ripped fabric aside to discern the truth of that statement. 

 

“Took a hit during our raid on the base.”

 

“Ah.” Coulson winces. “Morita dig it out for you?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Thank God. I really don’t like the thought of cutting through all the rehealed tissue to get it out.”

 

“You and me both –“

 

“Hang on.” Clint’s voice is low and dangerous. Coulson and Steve freeze in the same moment as they realize what they have said. “Are you telling me that you knew about the drug resistance thing?”

 

“I am not sure now is the best time…” Coulson trails off at the dark glares coming from all the Avengers. He sighs, then puts his shoulders back and tugs his suit jacket straight. “Yes.” 

 

“You told Phil.” Tony’s voice is flat and he won’t meet Steve’s eyes.

 

“No.” Coulson is the one who answers. “You forget that I have been at SHIELD for a long time. I met several of the Commandos. You know what I was like. Hunting down any information on Captain America and the Howling Commandos I could find. I knew about Steve’s drug resistance long before he came out of the ice.”

 

“I asked him not to tell anyone for the reasons I have already explained to you.” Steve offers. 

 

Tony is still glaring at Coulson. “And you are totally fine with the way SHIELD treats him. You didn’t think that that was crossing a line? That maybe you should ignore Captain Sacrifice over there and tell… oh I don’t know… his husband what those butchers were doing? You just left him there?”

 

Ignoring the chorus of “What the fuck are you talking about?” coming from the others, Tony studies Coulson’s face, which is blank with shock. “You – you didn’t know did you?” He asks slowly. 

 

Coulson’s eyes flicker over to Steve. “You said…”

 

“I lied.”

 

“Of course you fucking did.” Tony groans, wiping a hand down his face before waving the others to silence. “It’s not important right now. I will tell you later, but the key point is that it is NEVER happening again. Never.” He pins Steve with his gaze as he repeats the word. Steve nods helplessly. 

 

“So!” Tony claps. “What is the situation, Agent my Agent?”

 

Coulson blinks and the professional slips back into place. “It would actually be better to discuss this with the Commandos as well.”

 

Strange, having kept an eye on the Avengers, gestures for the Commandos to join them back at the fire. Steve says, “I don’t know how much Dr. Strange has explained, but this is Phil Coulson, our SHEILD liason and team handler. SHEILD is what Peggy, Howard and Phillips turned the SSR into after the war. And this is Dr. Stephen Strange. He is the Sorcerer Supreme of New York.”

 

“So he said.” Monty answered wryly. At Steve’s inquiring expression he explained ruefully, “We, well. We didn’t believe him to be frank. He showed a bit of his mystical what have you though. Think I believe him now.”

 

Steve smiles and turns to Coulson. “So Phil, now that you have a full audience…”

 

Coulson’s agent persona quickly slips into place as he steps up next to Steve. “When the team dropped out of communication May and I went in to see what had happened. We couldn’t find any trace of you, but Fitzsimmons picked up some weird readings where you must have been standing when you disappeared. They scanned the area and found similar readings coming from a nearby apartment building. We found a couple of Hydra men inside along with a machine. Somehow Hydra managed to construct a time machine. How they managed that when you, Natasha and Wilson ripped them apart a couple of years ago is beyond me. Anyway, we took custody of the machine – it is currently under lockdown in your lab, Stark – and took the men in for questioning. They refused to tell us how to use the machine to bring you back and Fitzsimmons weren’t confident enough to use it without input from Stark and Banner. So I went to explain the situation to Dr. Strange who agreed to help in more ways than I anticipated needed, actually.”

 

Steve nods. “You are going to erase this week, aren’t you?” He asks Strange. 

 

Strange tilts his head. “In a manner of speaking. I knew I needed to do something as soon as Agent Coulson began describing the situation to me. I was given a very strong warning early on in my training about the dangers involved in playing with time. I was well aware of the fact that nowhere in history did it indicate that you had met future versions of yourselves. That led to two possibilities. Either you had kept quiet about it all these years – in which case any paradoxes would resolve themselves as the present versions of yourselves would have known what to say – or withhold – from the past selves, or I needed to change something. I am guessing you do not recall this encounter?” Steve shakes his head.

 

Strange nods. “I originally toyed with the idea of simply rewinding time to when you arrived and take you home before any interactions. It would have been fairly simple – I have done it before. However, as I interrogated the men Agent Coulson had apprehended I realized it would not be that easy. Did you aid the Howling Commandos in a raid against a Hydra base?”

 

Steve nods and answers slowly as the pieces begin to click in his mind. “Yes. An unusually well-guarded one at that. There were almost too many for all of us to handle. That was the point wasn’t it? Why Hydra sent us back? They thought they could take at least one of us out by throwing us into a battle far behind enemy lines where we were desperately outnumbered. They didn’t plan to send all of us back did they?”

 

“No.” Coulson replies with a slight smile. “They had assumed their diversion was vague enough to only merit a few of you. They were apparently hoping for you, Stark and James. They were thrown off guard when you all showed and one of them panicked and hit the button.” 

 

Steve snorts. “Typical. But back to the point – you can’t just rewind this week because it will leave just the Commandos taking on that base. They will be slaughtered. Buck and I will be goners.” 

 

“Precisely.” Strange agrees. “I can, however, cloak the memories and put a suggestion of a false one. A small base, simple clean up. There is nothing that could dispute that – the base is destroyed, correct? With nothing to suggest the contrary, you shouldn’t remember the truth accidentally. However, now that I have explained it to you, both of you should be able to break through the cloaking. I would recommend waiting until we return to the present however. From what I have read it the process can be slightly unpleasant.”

 

Steve shoots a look towards James, who shrugs. Steve nods at Strange and then asks, “So what happens now?”

 

“Now you all go wait out of sight while I handle these gentlemen. Then I will take you back to the appropriate time.” Strange explains, gesturing towards the surrounding woods.

 

The others begin to gather their things and call goodbye to the Commandos as they head toward the woods. Steve hesitates a moment and then strides quickly toward Bucky, hauling him into a rough hug. Burying his face in his best friend’s neck, Steve murmurs so only Bucky can hear. “Be brave. Keep fighting. I – he will do whatever it takes to get you back. I would go to hell and back, fight the devil himself, and I would do it a thousand times over. You are worth it Bucky. You always have been and you always will be. Never don’t it. I promised you till the end of the line and that is still a long way off. I am so sorry for failing you on the train, but I will do everything in my power to make sure nothing ever happens to you again.”

 

Steve released Bucky but didn’t move away immediately, giving them both time to wipe their faces. Then, with one final look at Bucky, Steve turns and moves towards the forest. He pauses when he catches sight of James waiting at the tree line with an oddly relieved expression on his face. 

 

“What is it?” Steve asks as he draws near. They both turn and begin making their way toward the others.

 

“I was afraid you weren’t going to do it this time.”

 

“Do…. This… Buck, what?!” Steve stops as the implications sink in. 

 

Once James realizes he is no longer walking, he stops and ducks his head to stare intently at the forest floor. “Came back when I started piecing my memories together. Confused the hell outta me. Don’t know why I got through the cloaking – probably has something to do with having spent the last seventy years with my brain in a blender. I hadn’t – don’t – remember all of what has happened but a fair amount.” James pauses and Steve watches him debating what he is going to say next. Finally, James shrugs helplessly. “I remembered you saying that…. And I had enough of the rest back to know that it was the you from our time – not the younger version. It is what finally made me come back to you. I could see from the memories of this that I was at least somewhat functioning, but it was your words right now that made me believe that it just might end up being ok.”

 

James is still staring at the ground when he finishes, cheeks flaming red, so doesn’t see Steve hurling himself at James. James swears and sways from the impact, but wraps his arms around Steve and clings back just as tightly. At least he does until he hears the hitched, panicked noises Steve is making. Then James is trying to pry Steve back enough to look at him. 

 

“Ah shit. Stevie? Come on please look at me. Fuck. Tony! Tony, a little help here?” James hollers towards where the others have gathered. Steve can hear them coming through the woods, but refuses to release James. A warm hand settles on his shoulder, but when Steve doesn’t react, Tony lays along Steve’s back. “What happened?” Tony asks James.

 

James winces. “I uh told him that what he just went over and told the younger me is actually what made me come back when I did. He didn’t take it as well as I hoped.”

 

“Hey baby, I need you to look at me. Steve? James is here and he isn’t going anywhere ok? What is going on?” Tony is slowly running his hands up and down Steve’s arms. 

 

“Almost ruined everything.” Steve whispers. 

 

“How?” 

 

“I - I – “ Steve shudders. “I almost didn’t say anything. Seemed pointless. Strange will make sure he doesn’t remember what I said. I just thought it couldn’t hurt. Maybe it would just linger as a feeling. I was so close to just walking away! What if I had? You would have never come back. A split second decision that I almost chose wrong!” 

 

“Shit. Stevie no. That is not what I meant. Damn it Steve, look at me!” James wrenches himself out of Steve’s grasp and grabs his face. Forcing Steve to look at him James says “Steve I was coming back regardless. I came back faster because of those words, yes, I won’t deny it. But I was already weakening. I wanted to come back so badly. I just hadn’t convinced myself that I deserved to come back yet.” Softening his voice he adds, “Come on kid, when have you and I ever been able to help ourselves when it comes to the other? You know as well as I do that we will always end up having each other’s backs. All this did was help me come to my senses sooner.”

 

Steve searches James’s face for any sign of a lie. Finding none he gushes a sigh and collapses back into his best friend’s arms, dragging Tony with him. “Can we please get the fuck out of here?” He mutters. “I don’t think I can handle any more revelations.” 

 

Tony snorted. “I think James and I are with you there, babe. Let’s go home.”

 

The three make their way over to where the others are watching them worriedly. Tony shakes his head, cutting off any questions. “Just – home please.” 

 

Strange nods. “Stand back.” He moves his hands in front of him and then pushes one out, green symbols appearing around that hand. Moving his hand to one side, Strange slowly begins to move it to the other side. As he does, the forest around them seems to freeze and then speed up, seasons passing them by in seconds. Faster and faster it goes until suddenly everything stops. 

 

Strange straightens and winces before looking around. “Ha!” He exclaims, moving to where what appears to be Coulson’s tie is hanging from a nearby tree branch. Examining the tie, Strange shrugs. “Well, it’s close to the right time anyway. Tie hasn’t been out here too long. Once we are back in New York I can adjust us closer if need be. Now I will just…” 

 

This time holding both hand in front of him, Strange begins to move one in a circle. A fiery ring appears in front of him and through the ring Steve can see the living room of Avenger’s tower. “In you go.” Strange prompts. Steve shrugs and steps through the ring, the others following. Once they are all through, Strange follows them and the circle disappears. 

 

“JARVIS?” Tony calls. “How long have we been gone?” 

 

“Nice to see you again sir. You were called out 10 days ago.” Tony looks at the others and then asks, “Did any world ending events happen during that time, J?” 

 

“No, sir.”

 

“Then I am all for calling it good and staying here. All in favor?” Various hands go up and heads nod. Steve glances around at the tired faces surrounding him. Turning towards Phil he says “Debrief tomorrow. For now everyone get some rest.” Phil nods, eyes on Clint.

 

“Great. I need a shower and a drink.” Tony grabs Steve’s hand and tugs him along after him as he heads towards the penthouse. “Come on babe let’s get cleaned up.”

 

As soon as they step out of the elevator into the penthouse, Tony is on him. “Jesus.” He pants between bruising kisses. “You fucking scared me. And I couldn’t do shit about it. Over and over again.” Tony has slowly been backing Steve up towards the on suite. “Clothes off. Now. Need to check. Have to….” 

 

This is apparently the limit of Tony’s endurance, because he starts pulling on various portions of Steve’s uniform, trying to remove it all at once. Steve bats him off and begins to drag his top off as he says “You too, Tones. Get them off.”

 

JARVIS starts the shower for them, so by the time they stumble in mostly unclothed, tangled together, the water is the perfect temperature. Tony shoves Steve into the corner of the shower and kisses him ruthlessly, hands running along his torso, mapping the healing injuries. Steve returns the favor, gentle hands skimming over the bruises and cuts his husband has obtained during their foray into the past. 

 

Eventually, Steve grabs ahold of Tony’s wrist and slides it around behind him. Tony quickly catches on to Steve’s desire, pressing feather-light fingertips to his hole. Steve breaks their kiss, gasping and pants, “Please Tony. I need you.” 

 

Tony hums in acknowledgement and gropes along the shelf for the bottle of lube they keep there. Finding it, he makes quick work of slicking his fingers and sinking one into Steve. Both are too desperate for Tony to take his time teasing Steve, and it’s not long before he is trusting three fingers into the blonde. 

 

“Tony, please.” Steve moans, and Tony slides his fingers free, reaching around to give his cock a few slick tugs before lining it up with Steve’s hole. Steve throws his head back with enough force to crack the tiles as Tony sinks slowly into him. Ignoring Tony’s swearing and anxious fluttering hand at the back of his head, Steve lifts his leg higher and wraps it around Tony’s waist. He pulls Tony in closer and starts sucking marks down his neck. 

Tony, assured that Steve hadn’t cracked his skull along with the tile, slowly draws his cock out and then slams back into Steve, setting a hard pace that has both rushing towards their peaks. Steve bites down nearly hard enough to break skin as he crests, and the sudden shock of pain is enough to send Tony tumbling after him. 

 

They stumble out of the shower and into the bedroom, drying themselves half-heartedly before collapsing onto the bed. Tony wraps himself around Steve and they lay in silence, content in the closeness of each other.

 

After a few minutes, Tony murmurs “I think we should keep the machine.”

 

Steve shifts his head on Tony’s chest to peer up at his husband. “The Hydra time machine?” When Tony nods, he pushes himself up to better see Tony’s face. “Why? You don’t think we should destroy it? We could have all died Tony. Would have, and wreaked havoc on the timeline, if not for the fact that we were overly cautious and took everyone out on the call. Why would you want to keep it?”

 

Tony propped himself up on his elbow and reached out to gently touch Steve’s side where the bullet had hit. “If we had the machine – and knew how to use it – Agent could have come back right from the start and gotten us. Hydra has the machine. We can’t change that. But we can control how we use it. Only in cases where they use it first. It is safer than being defenseless Steve.” 

 

Steve considers that for a minute. “There would have to be protocol put in place. Safeguards on safeguards.”

 

Tony nods. “Of course.”

 

Steve eyes him warily. “And any experimenting is done with multiple people present. The thought of something happening while you are working on it alone…. You just disappearing with no idea where you are – when you are – no way to – “ Tony’s hand over his mouth stops his increasingly panicked patter.

 

“Never alone. I won’t do that to you Steve. I swear that any time the machine is not locked up there will be at least three Avengers present. I only want to use it to help us.”

 

Steve presses a gentle kiss to the palm of Tony’s hand before pulling him back down to the bed with him. “We will talk to the team tomorrow. For now can we just appreciate being back where we belong?”

 

Tony burrows further into Steve and whispers “I belong wherever you are. I won’t go near the machine without you – as long as we’re together we can manage anything. Or Agent will find us.” He ends with a snort. Steve just smiles and tightens his grip as he drifts off, secure in Tony’s arms. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve blinks heavy eyes open to the glare of bright sunshine. He muffles his groan as he sees Tony still sleeping next to him. It must be loud enough for JARVIS to hear, however as the windows tint enough for Steve to unbury his face.

 

A faint chime draws Steve’s attention to the ceiling where JARVIS is projecting:

****

**GOOD MORNING CAPTAIN.  
**   
**YOU HAVE BEEN ASLEEP FOR 13 HOURS.**  
**SERGEANT BARNES AND AGENT ROMANOV ARE IN THE COMMON KITCHEN,**  
**ALONG WITH DR. BANNER WHO IS MAKING BREAKFAST FOR EVERYONE.**

 

Steve signs a quick thank you and eases his way off the bed. He throws on a t-shirt and some sweats and presses a gentle kiss to the unruly curls poking out of the top of the blanket before shuffling over to the elevator. 

 

Steve dozes off on the ride down and only JARVIS’s gentle “Captain?” alerts him to the fact that the elevator has stopped. He makes his way down the hall where he can hear quiet voices and the sounds of cooking. Entering the kitchen, Steve sees Bruce poking at a pan on the stove as Natasha and James watch from the breakfast bar. All three look like they came from bed as well – Bruce is dressed much like Steve, James in pair of loose slung pajama pants, and Natasha with her legs pulled up inside the oversized hoodie she has on.

 

“That’s mine.” He grumbles as he wanders over and drops his head onto James’s shoulder. Steve feels more than hears James’s chuckle as Natasha sticks her tongue out and flips up the hood on the sweatshirt Steve has spent weeks searching for. 

 

“Good morning Sunshine.” James chuckles, lifting one hand to scritch the top of Steve’s head. “How ya doing?” In response Steve rests almost all his weight on James, who grunts in amused surprise. “Is that so? Well if you would quit doing your best impersonation of a sloth and sit on a stool like a normal person, there is coffee and Bruce is almost done with the eggs.” Steve just drops even more weight onto James. He feels James shake his head and slip his metal arm back around Steve’s waist, anchoring him to James’s back. 

 

James and Natasha return to their conversation and Steve lets the sound of their voices drift over him. The coffee smells delicious and is even more tempting after days of drinking the army rationed version. Steve is lazily contemplating the last few days when it suddenly feels like his mind is shattering. He gives a sharp cry at the pain and his knees buckle, only James’s arm keeping him from hitting the floor. 

 

Steve hears swearing and scrambling as Bruce and Natasha rush to help James, but his focus is internal. His head is pounding, and with each pulse comes a new memory. Faster and faster they come until Steve screams under the assault, body tensed and arched. Then, as suddenly as it started, everything stops.

 

Steve slumps back to the floor, keeping his eyes closed and concentrating on getting his breathing back under control. His head is in someone’s lap – Natasha’s if he had to guess – and he can feel the other two crouched on either side of him. With a crash that startles all of them, Tony comes skidding into the kitchen. “What happened?!” He demands.

 

“Remind me… to tell Strange… he has…a gift for…. Understatement. Slightly…. Unpleasant… my ass!” Steve pants, opening his eyes. The others slump in relief and Tony drops to his knees next to them. 

 

“You remember?” He asks. Steve gingerly probes his memory, wincing. He smiles at Natasha as she begins gently carding her fingers through his hair and massaging his scalp. “Yeah. I remember all of it.” Steve answers his husband. “God we are an intimidating bunch.” He snorts with a shaky laugh, emotions going haywire as he explores his newly regained memories.

 

“Well yeah.” Tony replies. “Image is half the battle.” Sniffing, he adds, “Brucie your eggs are burning.” Bruce swears and scrambles to his feet, hurrying to the stove. 

 

“You ready to get up?” James asks, holding out a hand to Steve. He hauls Steve to his feet and keeps hold of him until Steve is settled on a stool. 

 

“Vacation.” Tony demands, sliding onto the stool next to him and pushing a cup of coffee in Steve’s direction. “I don’t care where, but all of us are going and we are going to mysteriously misplace all of our means of communication. And you! – Mr “can’t-even-go-down-to-breakfast-without-a-crisis” – are not leaving the room. 

 

Steve just grins and takes a sip of coffee, the familiar sights and sounds of home reminding him that everything is just as it should be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this story is finally done! It ended up being way longer than I anticipated but I love the way it turned out. Thank you to everyone who read it. I hope I gave you all the ending you deserve. Please comment, like, message me, all of the above!
> 
> In terms of this story going forward... I have ideas for sequels which are starting to come together in my head (completing with the half dozen other stories up there). I am one of those people who love reading stories rewritten from another character's perspective and getting outtakes and things like that - I think this is a series that would lend itself to those kind of things pretty easily (as in I already have some....). If people seem interested I will post some of those.


End file.
